TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japan stock market has tracked higher in three straight sessions, rallying more than 2,450 points or 4 percent along the way. The Nikkei now sits just above the 64,650-point plateau although the rally may stall on Friday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft with renewed selling pressure likely among the technology stocks. The European markets were up and the U.S. markets were down and the Asian bourses figure to follow the latter lead.
The Nikkei finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains among the food, technology and semiconductor stocks.
For the day, the index climbed 705.28 points or 1.10 percent to finish at 64,659.47 after trading between 63,749.20 and 64,831.29.
The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages opened under water on Thursday and stayed that way throughout the trading day, although they came off session lows.
The Dow shed 132.54 points or 0.25 percent to finish at 52,342.56, while the NASDAQ tumbled 365.13 points or 1.38 percent to end at 26,184.72 and the S&P 500 sank 23.59 points or 0.30 percent to close at 7,720.39.
The sharp pullback by the NASDAQ came as technology stocks came under pressure as concerns about artificial trade once again resurfaced on Wall Street.
Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) led the way lower, plunging by 13.2 percent after reporting weaker-than-expected third quarter revenue as well as negative free cash flow.
On the U.S. economic front, a closely watched report from the Commerce Department showed consumer prices in the U.S. increased in line with estimates in the month of September.
Crude oil prices moved lower on Thursday on expectations of a possible de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict as Qatar presses Iran to negotiate with the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.79 or 0.77 percent at $101.99 per barrel.
Closer to home, the Bank of Japan will wrap up its monetary policy meeting today and then announce its decision on interest rates; the BoJ is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 1.25 percent.
Japan also will see September numbers for unemployment, industrial production, retail sales, construction orders and housing starts, plus October figures for Tokyo inflation.
The jobless rate (2.5 percent) and jobs-to-applicant ratio (1.18) are both expected to be unchanged. Industrial production is tipped to increase 1.2 percent on month after slipping 2.4 percent in August.
Retail sales are seen higher by an annual 3.3 percent, up from 2.7 percent a month earlier. Construction orders were down 3.6 percent on year in August and housing starts were up 6.1 percent. Overall Tokyo inflation is called higher by 3.3 percent on year, up from 2.7 percent in September, while core CPI is seen higher by an annual 2.6 percent - also up from 2.7 percent a month earlier.
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