TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market has moved higher in two straight sessions, advancing more than 1,075 points or 2.4 percent in that span. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 43,020-point plateau although it may run out of steam on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns about the health of the American economy. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are also expected to open to the downside.
The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.
For the day, the index climbed 438.48 points or 1.03 percent to finish at 43,018.75 after trading between 42,783.54 and 43,220.94.
Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 2.31 percent, while Mazda Motor soared 3.49 percent, Toyota Motor jumped 1.98 percent, Honda Motor climbed 1.14 percent, Softbank Group perked 0.19 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial advanced 0.93 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 1.36 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rose 0.32 percent, Mitsubishi Electric surged 4.13 percent, Sony Group fell 0.32 percent, Panasonic Holdings rallied 2.29 percent and Hitachi strengthened 1.64 percent.
The lead from the Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened slightly higher on Friday but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the day in the red.
The Dow stumbled 220.44 points or 0.48 percent to finish at 45,400.86, while the NASDAQ fell 7.31 points or 0.03 percent to close at 21,700.39 and the S&P 500 sank 20.58 points or 0.32 percent to end at 6,481.50. For the week, the NASDAQ jumped 1.1 percent, the S&P rose 0.3 percent and the Dow dipped 0.3 percent.
The early downturn on Wall Street came as traders digested a closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected U.S. job growth in the month of August.
Traders initially reacted positively to the report amid optimism the data will convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month. But buying interest quickly waned amid concerns about the outlook for the economy.
Crude oil moved sharply lower on Friday as oversupply concerns grew stronger ahead of OPEC's Sunday meeting, where the group did as expected and boosted output. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery dropped $1.64 or 2.58 percent to $61.84 per barrel.
Closer to home, Japan will release Q2 numbers for gross domestic product; in the previous three months, GDP was up 0.3 percent on quarter and 1.0 percent on year.
Japan also will see July data for current account and August figures for bank lending. The current account in June saw a surplus of 1.348 trillion yen, while overall bank lending was up 3.2 percent on year in July.
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