Bird’s-eye view of central Tokyo including Tokyo Tower at sunrise hours.<\/p>\n
Vladimir Zakharov | Moment | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.15% to close at a fresh record of 45,303.43 Thursday, led by gains in the real estate and technology sectors<\/p>\n
The top movers were led by chemical company Resonac Holdings<\/a>, which jumped more than 11%, semiconductor firm Sumco Corp<\/a>, which added 7.39%, and Mitsui Mining & Smelting<\/a>, which gained more than 5%.<\/p>\n Other Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed after the Federal Reserve lowered<\/a> its benchmark rate as expected on Wednesday, with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell framing the move as a “risk management cut,” rather than something more directed at shoring up a weak economy.<\/p>\n The Fed also indicated two more rate cuts could be made by the year’s end, another in 2026, one more in 2027, and no cuts in 2028.<\/p>\n South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.40%, closing at 3,461.3, while Australia’s S&P\/ASX 200 slid 0.83% to end the trading day at 8,745.2.<\/p>\n Shares of Australian gas producer Santos fell over 11% to A$6.78 after a consortium led by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) aborted its $18.7 billion acquisition bid<\/a> following protracted disputes over price and conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 1.31%, while the mainland CSI 300 lost 1.16% to 4,498.11.<\/p>\n Asian chip stocks rose after a report claimed that China has banned\u00a0Nvidia’s<\/a> artificial intelligence chips.<\/p>\n Shares of South Korea’s SK Hynix, which supplies memory chips to Nvidia, gained 5.85%. TSMC, which manufactures Nvidia’s high-performance graphics processing units that help power large language models, saw a more modest rise of 1.58%.<\/p>\n Samsung Electronics was 2.94% higher. Advantest<\/a> gained 4.95%, and Tokyo Electron<\/a> jumped 4.97%<\/p>\n The Bank of Japan kicked off its two-day policy meeting, where it is expected by most economists to keep policy rates steady.<\/p>\n HSBC expects policy rates to remain unchanged in the upcoming meeting, but sees a 25 basis point hike this year at the October meeting, which will raise the policy rate to 0.75%.<\/p>\n “Bank of Japan officials are looking for signs of economic resilience, and we believe that the second quarter GDP print, which outperformed market expectations, certainly delivered,” HSBC’s economists wrote. “With its U.S. trade deal finalized, Japan’s exporters received some relief from potentially even higher tariffs, but they could still be impacted by a future slowdown in global trade.”<\/p>\n U.S. stock futures rose slightly on Wednesday stateside as investors continued to digest the latest rate cut decision from the Federal Reserve.<\/p>\n Overnight in the U.S., the major averages closed mixed after a volatile day of trading. While the rate reduction was no surprise, markets weren’t sure what to make of it all.<\/p>\n