{"id":18459,"date":"2026-05-07T08:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/18459\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T08:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:59:07","slug":"tokyos-nikkei-225-jumps-nearly-6-on-hopes-for-reopening-the-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/18459\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumps nearly 6% on hopes for reopening the Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

World shares jumped on Thursday, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gaining almost 6% to a new record as investors waited to see if the U.S. and Iran<\/a> will strike a deal allowing tankers to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf again.<\/p>\n

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index jumped more than 3,300 points to 63,086.00 as markets in Tokyo reopened following \u201cGolden Week\u201d holidays.<\/p>\n

In early European trading, Germany\u2019s DAX edged 0.2% higher to 24,988.08 and the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.3% at 8,325.55. Britain’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% to 10,411.19.<\/p>\n

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3%.<\/p>\n

Japan’s Nikkei 225 has gained nearly 20% in the past three months and more than 70% in the past year, pushed higher by strong buying of tech shares that have benefited from the boom in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron gained 9% and testing equipment maker Advantest Corp. added 6.8%. Shin-Etsu Chemican gained 8.5%.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a kind of bubble because buying activity concentrated on leading AI, artificial intelligence stock and semiconductor-related stocks. It\u2019s a situation where only semiconductor stocks are being bought,\u201d said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Asia, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 1.7% to 26,668.37.<\/p>\n

The S&P\/ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.8% at 8,862.40.<\/p>\n

In South Korea, the Kospi reversed early losses, gaining 1.4% to 7,490.05, the second straight day it has closed at a record high. The benchmark jumped nearly 7% on Wednesday to barrel past 7,000 for the first time.<\/p>\n

Taiwan’s Taiex surged 1.9%, lifted by a 3.1% gain for big computer chipmaker TSMC.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, markets rallied worldwide after President Donald Trump said the Strait of Hormuz could be \u201cOPEN TO ALL\u201d if Iran accepts a reported agreement that the U.S. president did not detail.<\/p>\n

Oil prices fell nearly 8% and the S&P 500 climbed 1.5% for its best day in nearly a month, setting a fresh record. The Dow industrials jumped 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 2%.<\/p>\n

However, optimism was tempered by continuing tensions.<\/a> The U.S. military fired on an Iranian oil tanker Wednesday as President Donald Trump sought to pressure Tehran into reaching a deal to end the war. The military said in a social media post that a fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman as the vessel tried to breach an American blockade of Iran’s ports.<\/p>\n

Early Thursday in Asian trading, Brent crude oil yoyoed on Thursday, shedding early gains to fall 30 cents to $100.97 a barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude oil slipped 37 cents to $94.71 a barrel.<\/p>\n

Oil prices sank Wednesday and stock markets rallied worldwide on hopes that the United States and Iran were nearing a deal <\/a> to allow ships to deliver crude through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell 7.8% to $101.27, down from more than $115 early this week. But after dipping below $97 a barrel, it pushed back above $100 after Trump threatened to start bombing \u201cat a much higher level and intensity\u201d if Iran does not accept his proposed agreement.<\/p>\n

The effective closure of the strait due to the war threatens the global economy<\/a> because the conflict has blocked oil tankers from using it to exit the Persian Gulf. A reopening could allow oil to flow freely again and remove pressure on inflation that’s driving prices up for all kinds of products <\/a> worldwide.<\/p>\n

U.S. stocks have remained resilient despite the war thanks partly to strong profit reports by big U.S. companies<\/a> for the start of 2026.<\/p>\n

Chipmaker AMD helped lead the market Wednesday with a surge of 18.6% after it joined the list of big-name companies topping expectations for both profit and revenue.<\/p>\n

In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar fell to 156.39 Japanese yen from 156.40 yen. The euro rose to $1.1752 from $1.1747.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World shares jumped on Thursday, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gaining almost 6% to a new record as investors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[217,14641,5606,1782,1186,448,8,1250,3743,14640,907,52,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-18459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tokyo","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-energy-industry","10":"tag-energy-markets","11":"tag-financial-markets","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-iran-war","14":"tag-japan","15":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","16":"tag-stocks-and-bonds","17":"tag-stocks-markets-rates-iran-trump-oil","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-tokyo","20":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}