Japan Market Daily | Kabutaro & Friends

On August 17, 2026, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose for a fifth straight session, closing up 506.45 points (+0.74%) at 69,220.25, recovering the 69,000 level on a closing basis for the first time in about a month since July 6. The TOPIX, however, fell 13.09 points to 4,184.11, with decliners outnumbering advancers and trading value slipping below 9 trillion yen to 8.9492 trillion. In the US on August 14, the Dow fell 107 dollars, but July retail sales unexpectedly declined from the previous month and the August University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell for the first time in three months, pushing back expectations of an early Fed rate hike, which Tokyo took as a positive. In the afternoon session, buying deepened in high-priced AI and semiconductor stocks such as Advantest and Tokyo Electron, which together lifted the index by about 251 points. Kioxia Holdings rose 15.00%. USD/JPY fell to 158.95 in the morning before hovering around 159. Japan's 10-year government bond yield rose to around 2.93%, its highest level in roughly 30 years.