Nikkei Surges Past 15,400 -- Is 16,000 Within Reach by End of Month? ADRs to Watch (NMR, FUJIY, MLEA, HMC, PIO, NIPNY, KYO, DCM, ETF: EWJ)

If you thought yesterday was big with the Nikkei 225 up over 250 to 15,130, then check out today's gain of 290+ to close over 15,400. That's a total gain of over 3.5% in just the past two days. It's hard to say how soon large-scale profit taking will begin but in the afternoon the Nikkei had plenty of buyers to propel it from the 15,200s into the 15,400s. The TOPIX reached new multi-year highs as well closing above 1,580 for the first time since July 2000. The highest trading stock with ADRs was Nomura Holdings (ticker: NMR), up 7.67%, clearly benefiting from the overflowing bullish sentiment in Tokyo.

Nikkei 225: +291.10 (+1.92%) closed at 15,421.60, opened 142 points higher than prior close of 15,130.50, intra-day high was at closing, intra-day low was 15,245.36

TOPIX: +23.91 (+1.53%) closed at 1,583.72, opened nearly 13 points higher than prior close of 1,559.81, intra-day high was at closing, intra-day low was 1,570.37

JASDAQ: +0.64 (+0.57%) closed at 113.11, traded between a high of 113.13 to a low of 112.75

Yen: The American investor's worst enemy yet its best friend for those holding and banking on exporter stocks, traded even lower as the dollar gained yet again. Last posted rate was Y120.74/US$1.

So, to answer the question, "Will the Nikkei 225 hit 16,000 by the end of the month?" I think it will and I think it will hold 16,000 going into January. Of course we will see some profit-taking over the next few days and weeks in between strong days like today. There has been a consistent pool of buyers ready to pick-up shares on the relative cheap as others cash in. That's an excellent sign. One key to reaching and sustaining 16,000+ is strong holiday shopping sales indications and reports from U.S. and Japanese retailers. Another positive sign out of Tokyo is that non-exporter and more domestic-demand stocks are fueling the Nikkei's climb.

Today's advancers and decliners among Tokyo Stock Exchange traded stocks with ADRs:
* Advancers: Nomura Holdings (NMR) +7.67%, Fuji Photo Film (FUJIY) +5.14%, Millea Holdings (MLEA) +3.43%, Honda Motor (HMC) +3.09%, Pioneer (PIO) +2.58%, NEC (NIPNY) +2.45%, Kyocera (KYO) +2.41%

* Decliner: NTT DoCoMo (DCM) -1.07% was the only stock with ADRs to trade down more than 1%