The Nikkei Stock Average staged a sharp rebound in morning trading, with the session closing at ¥66,682.88. It opened at ¥66,104, starting slightly lower, before rising again during the morning and holding near its high.
The Nikkei Stock Average closed the morning session on the Tokyo market on the 28th at ¥66,682.88, up ¥550.90 from the previous day. Although it opened below the previous close, it rose rapidly to ¥66,305 at 9:10 a.m. and ¥66,511 at 9:15 a.m., maintaining its upward trend through the morning close.
Morning trading was volatile. After reaching ¥66,571 at 9:30 a.m., the index fell to ¥66,408 at 9:40 a.m. It recovered at 9:50 a.m., but was pushed back to ¥66,462 at 10:10 a.m. It then traded near its high, reaching ¥66,630 at 10:20 a.m., ¥66,675 at 10:45 a.m. and ¥66,670 at 10:55 a.m.
The morning close of ¥66,682.88 represented an increase of approximately ¥579 from the opening level of ¥66,104. All major US stock indexes rose, while USD/JPY traded in the mid-¥159 range. As for economic indicators, the core Tokyo CPI index for August rose 1.8% year on year, the unemployment rate for July was 2.4% and the effective job-openings-to-applicants ratio was 1.18. All were slightly weaker than, or marginally different from, market expectations.
The morning trading ranges were ¥159.29-¥159.47 for USD/JPY, 1.1646-1.1655 for EUR/USD and ¥185.64-¥185.78 for EUR/JPY. Movements in the euro, yen and USD/JPY are emerging as factors that could influence afternoon market trading.