Japan Bourse May Extend Tuesday's Gains

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market inched higher again on Tuesday, one day after ending the four-day winning streak in which it had jumped more than 1,600 points or 3.1 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 49,300-point plateau and it may pick up steam on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with technology shares expected to lead the markets higher. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were modestly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei finished barely higher on Tuesday as the financial shares and technology stocks were mostly higher, while the automobile producers were soft.

For the day, the index perked 0.17 points or 0.00 percent to finish at 49,303.45 after trading between 49,243.55 and 49,636.79. Among the actives, Nissan Motor retreated 1.49 percent, while Mazda Motor stumbled 2.11 percent, Toyota Motor slumped 1.20 percent, Honda Motor declined 1.30 percent, Softbank Group plummeted 5.23 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial rallied 2.46 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 2.15 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial soared 3.08 percent, Mitsubishi Electric jumped 1.58 percent, Sony Group added 0.63 percent, Panasonic Holdings tanked 3.45 percent and Hitachi gained 0.60 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Tuesday and remained in the green throughout the session, although it was a choppy day.

The Dow climbed 185.13 points or 0.39 percent to finish at 47,474.46, while the NASDAQ jumped 137.75 points or 0.59 percent to close at 23,413.67 and the S&P 500 added 16.74 points or 0.25 percent to end at 6,829.37.

The strength on Wall Street came amid a strong rebound by Bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency soared by more than 6 percent after moving sharply lower on Monday. Bitcoin's rally along with an advance by AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) may have been an indication of renewed risk appetite.

Semiconductor stocks helped lead the markets higher, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumping by 1.8 percent. Considerable strength was also visible among computer stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Crude oil prices gave ground on Tuesday as efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict have sent positive signals of a ceasefire sooner than expected. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.55 or 0.93 percent at $58.77 per barrel.