Japan Stock Market May Spin Its Wheels On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has finished higher in consecutive trading days, collecting almost 475 points or 0.8 percent along the way. Now at a fresh record closing high, the Nikkei 225 sits just above the 53,350-point plateau and it may run out of steam on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft amid geopolitical concerns, although support from gold and oil figure to limit the downside. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei finished slightly higher on Wednesday following a mixed picture from the financial shares, while the automobile and technology companies were down.

For the day, the index rose 25.17 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 53,358.71 after trading between 52,788.10 and 53,507.18. Among the actives, Nissan Motor plunged 4.11 percent, while Mazda Motor stumbled 3.91 percent, Toyota Motor tanked 3.24 percent, Honda Motor surrendered 2.34 percent, Softbank Group spiked 3.70 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial sank 0.78 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.47 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial retreated 1.55 percent, Mitsubishi Electric contracted 1.68 percent, Sony Group tumbled 2.46 percent, Panasonic Holdings cratered 2.45 percent and Hitachi eased 0.14 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is of little help as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday but tailed off and hugged the line, finishing mixed and little changed.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,015.60, while the NASDAQ added 40.35 points or 0.17 percent to close at 23,857.45 and the S&P 500 dipped 0.57 points or 0.01 percent to end at 6,978.03.

The choppy trading on Wall Street continued after the Federal Reserve announced its widely expected decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

The Fed said the decision to keep rates steady came amid elevated uncertainty about the economic outlook. The central bank also said it remains attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate of maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2 percent over the long run.

Despite the choppy trading by the broader markets, gold stocks moved sharply higher amid a continued surge by the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.7 percent to a new record closing high.

Crude oil prices soared on Wednesday as Iran rejected any nuclear talks under threat even as a massive U.S. armada nears the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $0.85 or 1.36 percent at $63.24 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will provide January numbers for its household confidence index later today, with forecasts suggesting a score of 37.1 - easing from 37.2 in December.