The Japanese stock market has finished lower in back-to-back sessions, tumbling almost 3,700 points or 7 percent in that span. The Nikkei 225 now sits just above the 51,500-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets is upbeat as tensions in the Middle East take a slight breather. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets are expected to follow the latter lead. The Nikkei finished sharply lower on Monday following losses among the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers. For the day, the index plunged 1,857.04 points or 3.48 percent to finish at 51,515.49 after trading between 50,688.76 and 52,479.81. Among the actives, Nissan Motor tumbled 5.02 percent, while Mazda Motor dropped 2.57 percent, Toyota Motor sank 2.23 percent, Honda Motor shed 1.38 percent, Softbank Group retreated 1.43 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial tanked 4.52 percent, Mizuho Financial declined 3.59 percent, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial contracted 2.85 percent, Mitsubishi Electric plunged 6.18 percent, Sony Group skidded 2.42 percent, Panasonic Holdings crashed 3.65 percent and Hitachi fell 1.01 percent. The lead from Wall Street is broadly positive as the major averages opened higher on Monday and remained firmly in the green throughout the trading day.
The Dow surged 631.00 points or 1.38 percent to finish at 46,208.47, while the NASDAQ spiked 299.15 points or 1.38 percent to close at 21,946.76 and the S&P 500 rallied 74.52 points or 1.15 percent to end at 6,581.00.
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Market Analysis
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.