The Japan stock market on Monday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had rallied more than 1,070 points or 2 percent. The Nikkei 225 now sits just beneath the 52,900-point plateau although it's expected to experience a mild rebound on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests mild upside ahead of the U.S. rate decision later this week. The European markets were mixed and little changed and the U.S. bourses were slightly higher and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.
The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Monday following heavy damage among the financials, technology stocks and automobile producers. For the day, the index tumbled 961.62 points or 1.79 percent to finish at 52,885.25 after trading between 52,656.00 and 53,138.67. Among the actives, Nissan Motor tanked 4.17 percent, while Mazda Motor stumbled 3.45 percent, Toyota Motor plunged 4.06 percent, Honda Motor crashed 4.42 percent, Softbank Group plummeted 4.89 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial contracted 3.72 percent, Mizuho Financial tumbled 3.09 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial retreated 2.78 percent, Mitsubishi Electric dropped 2.01 percent, Sony Group slumped 1.88 percent, Panasonic Holdings cratered 4.68 percent and Hitachi sank 3.62 percent.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.