Mild Upside Anticipated For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 1,800 points or 3 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just shy of the 50,220-point plateau although it's likely to bounce higher again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mildly positive ahead of the U.S. interest rate decision later today. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Tuesday as losses from the automobile producers and technology stocks were mitigated by support from the financial sector.

For the day, the index shed 293.13 points or 0.58 percent to finish at 50,219.18 after trading between 50,107.77 and 50,485.80. Among the actives, Nissan Motor stumbled 3.03 percent, while Mazda Motor slumped 2.80 percent, Toyota Motor retreated 1.46 percent, Honda Motor declined 1.39 percent, Softbank Group rallied 3.22 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial perked 0.02 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.40 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial added 0.39 percent, Mitsubishi Electric fell 0.24 percent, Sony Group lost 0.61 percent, Panasonic Holdings rose 0.30 percent and Hitachi dropped 1.27 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher and remained in the green throughout the trading day, ending at fresh record closing highs.

The Dow climbed 161.78 points or 0.34 percent to finish at 47,706.37, while the NASDAQ jumped 190.04 points or 0.80 percent to close at 23,827.49 and the S&P added 15.73 points or 0.23 percent to end at 6,890.89.

The strength on Wall Street came as stocks continued to benefit from recent upward momentum amid optimism about a potential trade deal between the U.S. and China.

However, traders seemed somewhat reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today.

While the Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, traders will look to the accompanying statement and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting comments for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.

Crude oil prices moved sharply lower on Tuesday on news that OPEC is leaning toward another modest increase in production in December. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery plunged $1.32 or 2.2 percent to $59.99 a barrel.