{"id":20960,"date":"2025-04-17T05:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T05:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/?p=20960"},"modified":"2025-04-17T05:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T05:34:13","slug":"nikkei-rises-amidst-tokyo-washington-trade-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/analysis\/nikkei-rises-amidst-tokyo-washington-trade-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikkei Rises Amidst Tokyo-Washington Trade Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"559\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/03\/image_fx-86-1024x559.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20961\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Points<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Nikkei 225 closes at 34,241.92<\/strong>, up <strong>1.34%<\/strong> from the previous day\u2019s low of <strong>33,566.92<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Japan\u2019s economy minister meets with U.S. officials in DC; President Trump calls talks \u201cbig progress\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Exporter stocks rally as the <strong>yen weakens<\/strong>, boosting sentiment across auto and chip sectors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Japanese equities regained momentum on Thursday, with the <strong>Nikkei 225 rebounding 1.34% to close at 34,241.92<\/strong>, supported by a <strong>weaker yen<\/strong> and signs of diplomatic headway as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/japan-set-kick-off-tariff-talks-washington-2025-04-16\/\">Tokyo kicked off trade negotiations in Washington<\/a><\/strong>. After a steep <strong>1% drop on Wednesday<\/strong>, Thursday\u2019s rally saw broad-based gains, led by exporters and semiconductor-linked names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Japan\u2019s exports rose at a slower pace as the first salvo of Trump\u2019s tariff campaign started disrupting commerce with the introduction of a high levy on steel and aluminum <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cXpVgYXShN\">https:\/\/t.co\/cXpVgYXShN<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Bloomberg (@business) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/business\/status\/1912661101554074022?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 17, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Trade Talks Fuel Optimism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Japanese Economy Minister <strong>Ryosei Akazawa<\/strong> met with U.S. Treasury Secretary <strong>Scott Bessent<\/strong>, Trade Representative <strong>Jamieson<\/strong>, and\u2014unexpectedly\u2014<strong>President Trump<\/strong>, who described the talks as making \u201cbig progress.\u201d Akazawa confirmed that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gaYAqoGNRh\">currency policy was not discussed<\/a><\/strong>, prompting a bounce in the dollar-yen pair, which in turn supported exporter sentiment on the Nikkei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rQObu3E7aV\">weaker yen typically benefits Japanese equities<\/a><\/strong>, as it boosts the repatriated value of overseas earnings for major exporters like <strong>Mazda (+2.1%)<\/strong> and <strong>Toyota (+0.6%)<\/strong>. Chip stocks also bounced after heavy selling the prior day, with <strong>Advantest (+3%)<\/strong> leading the rebound ahead of <strong>TSMC\u2019s earnings<\/strong> and <strong>Disco\u2019s results<\/strong> later in the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jefferies analysts, however, cautioned that the <strong>Nikkei may struggle to push beyond the 35,500 mark<\/strong> over the next year, citing uncertainty tied to Trump&#8217;s escalating global tariff plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Technical Analysis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Nikkei225<\/strong> has shown a resilient recovery after dipping to a low of <strong>33,566.92<\/strong> earlier in the session. The index has since climbed steadily to <strong>34,241.92<\/strong>, closing just shy of key resistance around the <strong>34,250\u201334,400<\/strong> zone. This rebound has brought the price back above the <strong>30-period moving average<\/strong>, and the 5MA and 10MA are now sloping upward\u2014suggesting <strong>bullish short-term momentum<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/03\/image-19-1024x442.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20962\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Picture: Nikkei claws back losses with bullish momentum building above 34,000, as seen on the <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/vtmarketsapp.onelink.me\/CD7D\/240525WA\">VT Markets app<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>MACD<\/strong> confirms the strength of the reversal, with a clear bullish crossover below the zero line and a strong expansion in green histogram bars. If momentum sustains, bulls could target the prior high near <strong>34,600<\/strong>, while support sits at <strong>34,000<\/strong> and then <strong>33,800<\/strong> for any downside retracements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Cautious Outlook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While Thursday\u2019s rebound reaffirms short-term technical support around <strong>33,550<\/strong>, the Nikkei must clear <strong>34,400\u201334,600 resistance<\/strong> to resume a sustained upward trend. With currency tailwinds and trade optimism supporting the near-term, attention now shifts to chip earnings and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VMFeRxQ8vc\">next steps in U.S.\u2013Japan trade talks<\/a><\/strong>, which could inject further volatility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/trade-now\/\">Create your live VT Markets account<\/a><\/strong><strong> and <\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.vtmarkets.com\/login\">start trading<\/a><\/strong><strong> now.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan\u2019s Nikkei rebounds 0.9% as exporters rally on a weaker yen and upbeat signals from trade talks in Washington. &#8211; vtmarkets.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":20961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-20960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-indices"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}