Mild Upside Seen For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, slumping more than 700 points or 1.2 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 56,950-point plateau although it may find traction on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement, with many markets shutting down this week for the Lunar New Year holiday. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian markets figure to open in similar fashion.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the automobile producers offered support.

For the day, the index tumbled 697.87 points or 1.21 percent to finish at 56,941.97 after trading between 56,652.48 and 57,407.25. Among the actives, Nissan Motor skyrocketed 8.76 percent, while Mazda Motor accelerated 3.65 percent, Toyota Motor jumped 1.86 percent, Honda Motor shed 0.62 percent, Softbank Group plummeted 8.86 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial tanked 2.66 percent, Mizuho Financial tumbled 2.36 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial surrendered 2.29 percent, Mitsubishi Electric plunged 3.97 percent, Sony Group retreated 1.47 percent, Panasonic Holdings cratered 4.87 percent and Hitachi crashed 6.57 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened lower but quickly inched higher before fading late to end mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 48.93 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 49,500.93, while the NASDAQ slipped 50.43 points or 0.22 percent to close at 22,546.67 and the S&P 500 perked 3.41 points or 005 percent to end at 6,836.17.

For the week, the NASDAQ tumbled 2.1 percent, the S&P dropped 1.4 percent and the Dow dropped 1.2 percent.

The choppy trading on Wall Street followed the release of the Labor Department's highly anticipated report on consumer price inflation in January. The report showed consumer prices rose slightly less than expected on a monthly basis, while the annual rate of growth slowed by more than anticipated.

The tamer-than-expected headline inflation data led to some renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates and a continued slump by treasury yields.

Crude oil prices inched higher on Friday, regaining some ground following the steep drop seen in the previous session after the IEA lowered its demand forecast. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $0.06 or 0.1 percent at $62.90 a barrel.