Japan Stock Market Due For Consolidation On Friday

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market has tracked higher in four straight sessions, advancing more than 750 points or 1.9 percent along the way. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 39,850-point plateau, although it's tipped to open in the red on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft, with oil and technology shares likely to lead the way lower. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei 225 finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the financial shares and technology stocks, while the automobile producers were mixed.

For the day, the index surged 476.91 points or 1.21 percent to finish at 39,849.14 after trading between 39,827.59 and 40,091.55.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor stumbled 2.16 percent, while Mazda Motor and Honda Motor both shed 0.50 percent, Toyota Motor rallied 1.34 percent, Softbank Group jumped 1.93 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial collected 0.52 percent, Mizuho Financial rose 0.23 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial eased 0.10 percent, Mitsubishi Electric spiked 2.00 percent, Sony Group soared 2.97 percent, Panasonic Holdings surged 2.74 percent and Hitachi advanced 0.95 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed on Thursday but quickly headed south and remained in the red for the balance of day, ending near session lows.

The Dow dropped 234.44 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 43,914.12, while the NASDAQ sank 132.05 points or 0.66 percent to close at 19,769.84 and the S&P 500 lost 32.94 points or 0.54 percent to end at 6,051.25.

The weakness on Wall Street came as traders looked to cash in on the strong performance seen on Wednesday, when the tech-heavy NASDAQ closed above 20,000 for the first time ever.

Some negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to a Labor Department report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of November.

While the Federal Reserve is still widely expected to lower interest rates next week, the data has raised some concerns about how quickly the central bank will cut rates early next year.

Oil futures closed lower Thursday after three days of gains after the International Energy Agency's forecast that the oil market will see excess supply next year. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January fell $0.27 or 0.4 percent at $70.02 a barrel.

Closer to home, he Bank of Japan will release the results of its quarterly Tankan survey of economic sentiment later this morning.

The large manufacturers index is expected to see a score of +13 with an outlook of +14, both unchanged from the previous survey. The small manufacturing index is expected to come in at -2, down from 0 in the previous three months.

Large all-industry capex is expected to rise 9.6 percent, easing from 10.6 percent in the third quarter. Small all-industry capex is seen higher by 3.5 percent, up from 2.6 percent in Q3.

Japan also will see final October numbers for industrial production, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 3.0 percent on month, up from 1.6 percent a month earlier.