TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japan stock market has tracked lower in five straight sessions, slumping more than 2,930 points or 4.2 percent in that span. The Nikkei now sits just beneath the 67,750-point plateau and it's looking at another soft start again on Thursday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak on rising crude oil prices and concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets are likely to follow the latter lead.
The Nikkei finished slightly lower on Wednesday as losses from the retail and financial shares were offset by gains among the technology companies.
For the day, the index dipped 33.23 points or 0.05 percent to finish at 67,744.29 after trading between 67,533.10 and 68,408.14.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened mixed but quickly tailed off and settled well under the unchanged line.
The Dow shed 48.62 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 51,621.48, while the NASDAQ tumbled 511.51 points or 1.88 percent to close at 26,692.87 and the S&P 500 slumped 86.51 points or 1.11 percent to end at 7,718.94.
The weakness on Wall Street came after the Labor Department released its closely watched report on consumer price inflation for September, which showed a bigger than expected increase in core consumer prices.
The bigger than expected increase in core prices led to renewed concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting later this month.
A sharp increase by the price of crude oil also weighed on stocks after the International Energy Agency warned that the recent escalation in attacks on regional energy infrastructure and tanker traffic in the Middle East is threatening to derail a recovery in oil supply. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery climbed $1.20 or 1.3 percent to $95.34 a barrel.
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