Rebound Anticipated For Japan Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Japanese stock market on Friday wrote a finish to the two-day winning streak in which it had surged almost 3,500 points or 6 percent to a fresh record closing high. The Nikkei now sits just above the 62,710-point plateau although it's expected to bounce higher again on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed to higher on strong employment data from the United States. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are expected to move mostly higher.

The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial and automobile sectors and a mixed picture from the technology stocks.

For the day, the index sank 120.19 points or 0.19 percent to finish at 62,713.65 after trading between 62,137.95 and 62,724.36. Among the actives, Nissan Motor tumbled 1.73 percent, while Mazda Motor shed 0.45 percent, Toyota Motor tanked 2.18 percent, Honda Motor improved 0.75 percent, Softbank Group plunged 4.56 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial stumbled 1.97 percent, Mizuho Financial cratered 2.24 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial surrendered 2.51 percent, Mitsubishi Electric perked 0.19 percent, Sony Group lost 0.51 percent, Panasonic Holdings dropped 0.93 percent and Hitachi rallied 1.81 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is mostly positive as the major averages opened higher on Friday and largely stayed that way, although the Dow spent the ay bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The Dow rose 12.19 points or 0.02 percent to finish at 49,609.16, while the NASDAQ rallied 440.88 points or 1.71 percent to end at 26,247.08 and the S&P 500 gained 61.82 points or 0.84 percent to close at 7,398.93.

For the week, the NASDAQ spiked 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent and the Dow crept up 0.2 percent.

The strength on Wall Street came following the release of a closely watched Labor Department report showing much stronger than expected U.S. job growth in April.

The data helped ease concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East even after the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil prices inched higher Friday as Middle East tensions renewed between the U.S. and Iran. Iran is also delaying its response to a U.S. peace proposal, adding to the uncertainty. West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up $0.36 or 0.36 percent at $95.17 per barrel.