TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japan stock market headed south again on Thursday, one day after ending the three-day losing streak in which it had tumbled almost 1,000 points or 2.8 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 37,550-point plateau and the losses may accelerate on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests caution ahead of key U.S. employment data later in the day. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were slightly lower and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The Nikkei finished modestly lower on Thursday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.
For the day, the index dropped 192.96 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 37,554.49 after trading between 37,527.88 and 37,732.88.
Among the actives, Nissan Motor tanked 2.26 percent, while Mazda Motor plunged 4.49 percent, Toyota Motor stumbled 2.72 percent, Honda Motor surrendered 2.67 percent, Softbank Group skidded 1.01 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial retreated 1.39 percent, Mizuho Financial declined 1.58 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial tumbled 1.99 percent, Mitsubishi Electric plummeted 2.25 percent, Sony Group slumped 1.53 percent, Panasonic Holdings dropped 2.52 percent and Hitachi added 0.60 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed but spent most of the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before finishing modestly under water.
The Dow dropped 108.00 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 42,319.74, while the NASDAQ stumbled 162.04 points or 0.83 percent to close at 19,298.45 and the S&P 500 sank 31.51 points or 0.53 percent to end at 5,939.30.
Stocks saw some strength earlier in the day after President Donald Trump confirmed in a post on Truth Social that he had an approximately 90-minute phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday.
The data could have a significant impact on the outlook for the economy following Wednesday's weaker than expected reports on private sector employment and service sector activity.
In the bond market, treasuries pulled into negative territory after seeing early strength. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.9 basis points to 4.394 percent, after hitting a nearly one-month intraday low of 4.318 percent.
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