FX.co ★ Japanese Market Sharply Higher

The Japanese market saw a significant rebound on Thursday, recovering losses from the previous two sessions. The market followed the broadly positive trends set by Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 rose above the 36,600 mark, bolstered by gains in all sectors, especially index heavyweights and technology stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index surged 982.98 points, or 2.76 percent, to reach 36,602.75, after peaking at 36,873.37 earlier in the day. Notably, Japanese shares had ended sharply lower on Wednesday.

Key market players saw substantial gains. SoftBank Group rose nearly 8 percent, while Fast Retailing, the operator of Uniqlo, added almost 3 percent. In the automotive sector, Toyota climbed nearly 3 percent, and Honda gained more than 2 percent.

The technology sector also performed strongly, with Tokyo Electron gaining almost 4 percent, Advantest surging more than 7 percent, and Screen Holdings adding over 2 percent.

In the banking sector, both Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial increased by almost 2 percent, and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial rose by more than 1 percent.

Among major exporters, Canon improved by 1.5 percent, Mitsubishi Electric advanced over 4 percent, Panasonic climbed more than 2 percent, and Sony went up by more than 1 percent.

Other significant gainers included Ebara, which skyrocketed nearly 10 percent, and IHI, soaring almost 9 percent. Tokuyama and NEC surged almost 7 percent each. Additionally, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Omron, Hitachi, and Fujikura gained around 5 percent each, with Chugai Pharmaceutical, Fujitsu, Kuraray, and UBE adding over 4 percent each.

Conversely, Daiichi Sankyo experienced losses, dropping almost 3 percent.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the upper 142 yen range on Thursday.

Stateside, Wall Street saw a dramatic turnaround on Wednesday. After starting the session sharply lower, the tech-heavy Nasdaq led a recovery that saw all major averages end in positive territory. The Nasdaq rebounded from an early decline of up to 1.4 percent to surge 369.65 points, or 2.2 percent, finishing at 17,395.53. Similarly, the S&P 500 jumped 58.61 points, or 1.1 percent, to 5,554.13, while the Dow rose 124.75 points, or 0.3 percent, to 40,861.71, despite hitting its lowest intraday level in almost a month.

Meanwhile, European markets had a mixed session. The German DAX Index rose by 0.4 percent, whereas the French CAC 40 Index edged down by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

In commodities, crude oil prices surged on Wednesday, recovering from a three-year low seen in the prior session. This uptick was due to concerns over prolonged production shutdowns in the offshore oil patch because of Hurricane Francine. West Texas Intermediate Crude futures for October ended the day up $1.56, or 2.37 percent, at $67.31 a barrel.