Today at a glance: after ending today at 27,383, the Nikkei traded in a 27,337 – 27,500 range before settling at 27,433.
Nikkei made an initial break below its 3 day Simple Moving Average at 27,380, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. The Nikkei's upper Bollinger Band® is at 27,682, suggesting that a downward move may follow. In contrast, the Nikkei is approaching key support, around 111.31 points away from 27,322. Dipping below could indicate further losses are ahead while a failure to break below this level is likely to be seen positively by market bulls.
Although price action remains in a stalemate, technical analysis suggests the Nikkei could be primed for a break to the downside.
While the Nikkei was pretty flat today, mixed performances were seen elsewhere as Hang Seng dips 2.73% today and closed at 22,700. KOSPI Composite Index lost 1.35% today and closed at 2,484. Nasdaq is trading around 11,622 after ending today's session at 11,500 (up 0.95% today).
Data to be released tomorrow might clear up some of the market fog as today at 23:50 UTC data for Japan Industrial Production will be released, with an expected decline to -1.2% from the preceding figure of 0.2%. Japan Retail Sales is projected to outperform its last figure with 3%. It previously stood at 2.5%; data will be released today at 23:50 UTC. Japan Jobs/applications ratio (Dec) is scheduled for today at 23:30 UTC.
The Nikkei hit a significant low of 15.42 around 4 months ago, but has since recovered 177,478%.