Nikkei May Spin Its Wheels Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The Japan stock market on Friday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 430 points or 0.8 percent. The Nikkei 225 now rests just above the 50,375-point plateau and it may remain stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on concerns over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index cratered 905.30 points or 1.77 percent to finish at 50,376.53 after trading between 50,246.60 and 50,767.74. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 2.57 percent, while Mazda Motor shed 0.66 percent, Toyota Motor lost 0.56 percent, Honda Motor sank 0.54 percent, Softbank Group plunged 6.57 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial perked 0.04 percent, Mizuho Financial fell 0.26 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial eased 0.02 percent, Mitsubishi Electric retreated 1.53 percent, Sony Group added 0.66 percent, Panasonic Holdings jumped 1.95 percent and Hitachi plummeted 4.97 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is murky as the major averages opened lower on Friday but hugged the line for most of the day before ending mixed and little changed.

The Dow shed 309.74 points or 0.65 percent to finish t 47,147.48, while the NASDAQ rose 30.23 points or 0.13 percent to close at 22,900.59 and the S&P 500 dipped 3.38 points or 0.05 percent to end at 6,734.11. For the week, the NASDAQ dipped 0.5 percent, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P perked 0.1 percent.

Weakness among technology stocks continued to weigh on Wall Street early in the session amid lingering valuation concerns. However, gains from tech heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA), Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and Tesla (TSLA) dragged the NASDAQ into the green.

While some traders used the initial slump as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, buying interest remained somewhat subdued amid uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.

Recent comments from Federal Reserve officials and indications that key U.S. economic data may never be released due to the government shutdown have reduced confidence that the central bank will lower interest rates next month.

Crude oil prices rallied on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack damaged an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was up $1.28 or 2.2 percent at $59.97 a barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will release preliminary Q3 numbers for gross domestic product later this morning; in the three months prior, GDP was up 0.5 percent on quarter and 2.2 percent on year.