Japan Shares May Stop The Bleeding On Thursday

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market has finished lower in four straight sessions, shedding more than 2,710 points or 5.6 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 48,530-point plateau although it's overdue for support on Thursday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat, with better-than-expected earnings news from AI darling Nvidia (NVDA) expected to fuel the markets. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Wednesday following losses from technology stocks, gains from the automobile producers and a mixed picture from the financial shares.

For the day, the index sank 165.28 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 48,537.70 after trading between 48,235.30 and 49,087.11. Among the actives, Nissan Motor eased 0.17 percent, while Mazda Motor added 0.43 percent, Toyota Motor rose 0.26 percent, Honda Motor rallied 1.44 percent, Softbank Group perked 0.03 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial fell 0.21 percent, Mizuho Financial slid 0.26 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial collected 0.34 percent, Mitsubishi Electric dropped 0.89 percent, Sony Group tumbled 1.75 percent, Panasonic Holdings tanked 2.58 percent and Hitachi slumped 1.47 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is cautiously optimistic as the major averages opened higher on Wednesday and hugged the line for most of the day before ending with modest gains.

The Dow added 47.03 points or 0.10 percent to finish at 46,138.77, while the NASDAQ jumped 131.38 points or 0.59 percent to end at 22,564.23 and the S&P 500 gained 24.84 points or 0.38 percent to close at 6,642.16.

The early strength on Wall Street came as traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following the significant weakness of the past few sessions. The major averages slumped to their lowest closing levels in a month on Tuesday on lingering concerns about a potential AI bubble.

Buying interest waned over the course of the session, however, as traders looked ahead to the release of earnings news Nvidia after the close of Wednesday's trading.

Stocks continued to show a lack of direction after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed officials had mixed views about the outlook for interest rates.

Crude oil tumbled on Wednesday, with various data points reinforcing oversupply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $1.22 or 2.01 percent at $59.52 per barrel.