Mild Recovery Seen For Japan Stock Market

TOKYO (dpa-AFX) - The Japan stock market on Thursday wrote a finish to the three-day winning streak in which it had collected more than 1,100 points or 1.7 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 68,730-point plateau although it may move back to the upside again on Friday.The global forecas…

The global forecast for the Asian markets is murky, with weakness from the technology shares likely to cap any upside. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were mixed and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Thursday following losses from the technology stocks and a mixed picture from the industrials.

For the day, the index tumbled 1,741.81 points or 2.47 percent to finish at 68,733.15 after trading between 68,676.26 and 70,081.39.

Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 2.73 percent, while Mazda Motor jumped 1.88 percent, Toyota Motor rallied 2.51 percent, Honda Motor soared 3.70 percent, Softbank Group spiked 3.25 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial vaulted 1.82 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 2.03 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial expanded 2.18 percent, Mitsubishi Electric tanked 2.01 percent, Sony Group strengthened 2.46 percent, Panasonic Holdings plunged 4.68 percent and Hitachi surged 3.85 percent.

The lead from Wall Street offers little clarity as the major averages opened higher on Thursday but slumped after the release of U.S. jobless data; the markers eventually recovered to finish mixed.

The Dow jumped 594.83 points or 1.14 percent to finish at 52,900.07, while the NASDAQ tumbled 207.36 points or 0.80 percent to end at 25,832.67 and the S&P 500 perked 0.01 point or 0.00 percent to close at 7,483.24.

The markets opened slightly higher on Thursday but were clearly waiting on the jobs data. Stocks sank after the Labor Department said employment in the U.S. increased much less than expected in June.

Sentiment eventually turned higher again as the lower-than-expected payrolls data caused markets to tone down fears of an immediate rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

In other U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department reported a steep drop in new orders for U.S. manufactured goods in May, thanks to a sharp pullback in new orders for durable goods. Also, first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower last week.

Crude oil prices inched higher on Thursday after the U.S. and Iran expressed contradictory remarks over the management of the Strait of Hormuz. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery was up $0.05 or 0.07 percent at $68.63 per barrel.

Closer to home, Japan will see June services and composite PMI results from S&P Global later this morning. The services PMI is expected to see a score of 51.8, up from 50.0 in the previous month. The composite is seen at 52.5, up from 51.1 a month earlier.