TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Ahead of Friday's holiday for the vernal equinox, the Japanese stock market had headed south again, one day after ending the four-day slide in which it had stumbled more than 1,320 points or 2.4 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 53,375-point plateau and it's likely to extend its losses on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on soaring crude oil prices and pessimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses are expected to open in similar fashion.
The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Thursday with damage across the board, especially among the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.
For the day, the index plummeted 1,866.87 or 3.38 percent to finish at 53,372.53 after trading between 53,190.18 and 54,333.02.
Among the actives, Nissan Motor tumbled 3.75 percent, while Mazda Motor crashed 4.93 percent, Toyota Motor tanked 2.32 percent, Honda Motor surrendered 3.20 percent, Softbank Group plunged 5.12 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial skidded 1.65 percent, Mizuho Financial retreated 2.69 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial declined 1.90 percent, Mitsubishi Electric dropped 2.77 percent, Sony Group shed 0.46 percent, Panasonic Holdings slumped 1.94 percent and Hitachi fell 0.41 percent.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened in the red on Friday and continued to weaken as the day progressed, ending near session lows.
The Dow tumbled 443.96 points or 0.96 percent to finish at 45,577.47, while the NASDAQ plunged 443.08 points or 2.01 percent to close at 21,647.61 and the S&P 500 sank 100.01 points or 1.51 percent to end at 6,506.48. For the week, the Dow and NASDAQ both plunged 2.1 percent and the S&P lost 1.9 percent.
The sell-off on Wall Street came amid continued volatility by the price of crude oil, which has been a key driver of trading in recent sessions and showed wild swings over the course of the day.
Crude oil prices surged on Friday as fresh attacks on Kuwait by Iran renewed concerns of a prolonged gulf war, stoking production disruption worries. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up by $1.68 or 1.75 percent at $97.82 per barrel.
Oil prices remain sharply higher compared to when the war began, fueling concerns about the outlook for inflation and interest rates. CME Group's FedWatch Tool currently indicates the Federal Reserve is not likely to cut interest rates this year and there's a chance rates could even be higher by the end of the year.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
