Nikkei soared 1.4% to 38,678 points, just short of the all-time high of 38,957 points hit in 1989 that marked the peak of Japan’s so called “bubble economy”
Japan’s Nikkei charged toward an all-time high on Friday, helped higher by a buoyant Wall Street after a big decline in U.S. retail sales revived the probability of a June rate cut, which in turn weighed on the dollar.
Nikkei soared 1.4% to 38,678 points, just short of the all-time high of 38,957 points hit in 1989 that marked the peak of Japan’s so called “bubble economy.”
The index is 4.8% higher for the week, the third successive week of gains, bringing the year-to-date gains to a staggering 15.6%.
Elsewhere, Asian shares mostly tracked Wall Street higher. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.3% and was headed for a 1.4% weekly gain.
Figures on Thursday showed that Japan and Britain slid into recession at the end of last year, and U.S. retail sales last month dropped much more than expected. But the upshot of that could be comparatively looser monetary policy.
I think the demand picture is definitely starting to fracture in some of the developed market economies, said Tony Sycamore, IG market analyst. So it does bring forward the idea of interest rate cuts.
One by one the dominoes are starting to fall. The UK and Japan fell yesterday. Obviously there is a long way to go for the U.S. to fall into recession as their numbers have been pretty good. Europe you know it could be the next to go. And China’s not great, he added.
Nomura on Thursday predicted the Nikkei would reach 40,000 points by the end of 2024, citing reasons such as an end to deflation in Japan, global investment shifting away from dependence on Chinese equities and improvement in Japanese corporate governance.
