Just caught up with what happened in the Tokyo market on Thursday and it's pretty interesting how things shifted. After getting hammered for three straight days with losses over 4,600 points or roughly 8 percent, the Nikkei finally caught a bid and bounced back hard. We're now hovering just above 55,275, though the stock market news suggests we could see another pullback as we head into Friday.

The recovery was solid - the index jumped over 1,000 points, finishing at 55,278.06 after swinging between 54,910 and 56,619 throughout the session. The financial sector really led the charge here. Mizuho Financial absolutely ripped higher with a 6.37 percent gain, while Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui both climbed around 3.4 to 3.7 percent. Tech stocks also participated - Softbank rallied nearly 4.3 percent. The auto makers were all over the place though. Toyota and Honda both stumbled with losses around 1.1 to 1.3 percent, while Mazda managed a slight gain.

But here's the thing that's got everyone watching the stock market - the broader backdrop remains shaky. Wall Street ended Thursday in the red across the board. The Dow dropped 784 points, the S&P 500 lost about 39 points, and the NASDAQ fell 58 points. Energy prices are the main culprit here. Crude oil spiked another 8.7 percent on Thursday alone, hitting $81.17 a barrel, and we're already up over 21 percent for the week. The Middle East tensions are clearly the driver - Iran's been making noise about striking tankers and threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, which has everyone on edge about potential supply disruptions.

So the market news heading into Friday is mixed at best. Yes, we got that relief rally in Tokyo on Thursday, but the global backdrop with energy concerns and geopolitical risk hanging over everything means we could easily reverse course. The forecast for Asian markets is leaning negative, especially with Europe and the US both showing weakness. If crude keeps climbing and tensions escalate further, that could easily wipe out Thursday's gains. Worth keeping an eye on how the stock market opens tomorrow.