The September Nikkei 225 futures contract recovered to the ¥65,000 range for the first time in 3 days, closing at ¥65,020. Short covering is reportedly progressing against a backdrop of an unwinding of the NT ratio and trends in the US market.
The September Nikkei 225 futures contract ended trading up ¥790 from the previous day at ¥65,020. It opened at ¥64,660 and rose to ¥64,870 in the middle of the morning session, before showing renewed attempts to move higher in the afternoon. Although the gain narrowed toward the close, the contract recovered to the ¥65,000 range again late in the session.
Kioxia Holdings showed strong price action in response to trends in the US market, while Tokyo Electron opened with selling in the morning but recovered from the middle of the morning session onward. Its recovery to the -1σ level of the Bollinger Bands appears to have prompted short-term short covering.
The NT ratio rose to 15.86x for the most-active futures contract. One view is that falling long-term interest rates and currency movements prompted an unwinding of NT shorts. Based on the positioning of the daily and weekly clouds, the market is focused on waiting for a rebound, and whether prices break above the lower cloud boundary is likely to be a key inflection point for future buying.
SoftBank Group rose more than 11% today, helping push up the Nikkei 225. Meanwhile, movements in semiconductor stocks are determining the scale of the market impact, and buying aimed at an independent rebound could strengthen alongside Kioxia Holdings' rebound trend.