TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japanese stock market on Friday snapped the four-day slide in which it had slumped more than 2,200 points or 3.4 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 65,000-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Monday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests consolidation on renewed concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and flat and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.
The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Friday following gains from the technology stocks, retail companies, financial shares and industrials.
For the day, the index rallied 806.44 points or 1.26 percent to finish at 65,020.94 after trading between 64,228.47 and 65,182.45.
The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened lower on Friday and spent the whole day firmly under water, finishing near session lows.
The Dow dropped 271.85 points or 0.51 percent to finish at 53,414.25, while the NASDAQ sank 77.11 points or 0.29 percent to close at 26,506.99 and the S&P 500 fell 29.11 points or 0.38 percent to end at 77,18.60. For the week, the Dow dipped 0.5 percent, the NASDAQ rose 0.4 percent and the S&P perked 0.1 percent.
The pullback on Wall Street came amid renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates following the release of much stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data for August.
Treasury yields jumped in reaction to the report, as the strong data could make the Federal Reserve more comfortable about raising interest rates later this month in an effort to fight sticky inflation.
According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, the chances the Fed will raise rates by a quarter point have bounced back to 58.4 percent after falling below 50 percent last week.
Crude oil prices eased on Friday, reversing gains from the two previous sessions as the U.S. and Iran refrained from any military attacks. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery dipped $0.15 or 0.16 percent at $91.15 per barrel.
Closer to home, Japan will see preliminary July figures for its leading and coincident indexes later today; in June, the leading index was flat on month, while the coincident was up 0.6 percent.
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