Nikkei 225 Rebounds Sharply as Tech Selling Eases After Wall Street Recovery

TOKYO — Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose more than 1 percent on Friday, recovering part of the previous session's steep losses as selling pressure on technology stocks eased following a rebound on Wall Street.

The benchmark climbed roughly 1.4 percent to around 65,327 by mid-afternoon, after plunging nearly 5 percent on Thursday to close at 64,425.95. That marked one of the index's largest single-day declines in recent months and briefly pushed it below the 64,000 level.

The recovery tracked overnight gains in U.S. markets, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 500 points and the Nasdaq Composite also finished higher after early weakness. Investors cited lower U.S. Treasury yields and comments from Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang defending the financial position of AI cloud provider CoreWeave as factors that helped stabilize sentiment.

Huang told Bloomberg that CoreWeave's strength was improving and that its cost of capital was decreasing, comments that eased some immediate concerns about debt-related risks in AI infrastructure financing. Those concerns had contributed to Thursday's broad sell-off in technology shares across Asia.

Gains on Friday were led by technology and semiconductor-related names, including Advantest and Tokyo Electron, though buying also spread to other sectors. Toyota Motor and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group advanced, suggesting the rebound was not limited to AI-linked stocks. Most of the 33 industry groups on the Tokyo Stock Exchange finished higher.

Despite the session's recovery, the Nikkei remained on track for a weekly loss after several consecutive declines. Analysts noted that the index has become heavily weighted toward AI-related companies, making it sensitive to shifts in investor confidence about the pace and financing of technology investment.

The yen traded near 158 to the dollar. No major domestic economic data drove Friday's move. Market participants continued to monitor global interest-rate expectations and developments in the AI sector for further direction.