{"id":79740,"date":"2026-04-16T18:15:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/?p=79740"},"modified":"2026-04-16T18:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T08:15:48","slug":"thursday-16th-april-2026-japans-nikkei-hits-record-high-as-asia-rallies-on-u-s-iran-deal-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/thursday-16th-april-2026-japans-nikkei-hits-record-high-as-asia-rallies-on-u-s-iran-deal-hopes\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday 16th April 2026: Japan\u2019s Nikkei Hits Record High as Asia Rallies on U.S.\u2013Iran Deal Hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a0Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 2.22%, Shanghai Composite up 0.53% Hang Seng up 1.43% ASX down 0.33%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $4,845.90 (0.46%) Silver at $80.550 (1.41%), Brent Oil at $94.90 (-0.03%), WTI Oil at $91.54 (0.27%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.266, UK 10-year yield at 4.8180, Germany 10-year yield at 3.0474<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(CAD) Manufacturing Sales m\/m\u00a0 3.6% to 3.8%\u00a0 expected<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(CAD) Wholesale Sales m\/m\u00a0 2.0% to 2.3%\u00a0 expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 surged to a record high Thursday, leading gains across Asia as regional markets followed Wall Street\u2019s overnight rally on growing expectations of a potential U.S.\u2013Iran agreement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Nikkei climbed 2.43%, supported by strong advances in technology and consumer cyclical stocks. Daikin Industries led the gains after activist investor Elliott Investment Management urged the company to improve performance and narrow its valuation gap with global peers. The broader Topix index rose 1.33%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investor sentiment improved this week as hopes increased that tensions between Washington and Tehran could ease. In the U.S., the S&amp;P 500 has risen about 3% this week after recovering losses linked to the Iran conflict, while the Nasdaq gained roughly 5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added more than 1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Donald Trump said in a Fox Business interview that the conflict was \u201cvery close to over,\u201d adding that Iran was eager to reach a deal. A White House official also confirmed discussions about a possible second round of negotiations, though no schedule has been finalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea\u2019s Kospi rose 2.12% and the Kosdaq gained 1.10%, while Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 slipped 0.25% despite steady employment data. China\u2019s CSI 300 rose 0.56% and Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng added 0.89%, supported by stronger-than-expected first-quarter GDP growth of 5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Upcoming Events:<br \/><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>12:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Unemployment Claims<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 surged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamental-analysis","category-market-analysis","category-recent-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79741,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79740\/revisions\/79741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}