The Japanese stock market ticked higher again on Monday, one session after snapping the three-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 1,700 points or 3.4 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 50,580-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat to lower ahead of the FOMC meeting later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were soft and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The Nikkei finished modestly higher on Monday as gains from the automobile producers and technology stocks were capped by weakness from the financial sector. For the day, the index added 90.07 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 50,581.94 after trading between 50,224.65 and 50,678.05. Among the actives, Nissan Motor accelerated 3.08 percent, while Mazda Motor perked 0.18 percent, Toyota Motor advanced 0.92 percent, Honda Motor added 0.56 percent, Softbank Group stumbled 3.27 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial slumped 1.23 percent, Mizuho Financial collected 0.05 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial sank 0.83 percent, Mitsubishi Electric soared 3.42 percent, Sony Group dropped 0.74 percent, Panasonic Holdings gained 0.41 percent and Hitachi improved 0.57 percent. The lead from Wall Street is weak as the major averages opened mixed but quickly headed south and spent the balance of the session well under water.
The Dow dropped 215.67 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 47,739.32, while the NASDAQ sank 32.22 points or 0.14 percent to close at 23,545.90 and the S&P 500 fell 23.89 points or 0.35 percent to end at 6,846.51.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.