The Nikkei 225 fell 0.94% to 63,754.90 on Monday as a confirmed joint Japan-US yen-buying intervention sent the dollar down 2.12% to 156.79, pressuring exporters. Fanuc cratered 14% on heavy volume, the TSE short-selling ratio held at an elevated 45.4%, and the Nikkei VI jumped to a stressed 35.50.
Japan’s ‘core CPI’ strips out only fresh food — not energy — and it is the series the Bank of Japan’s 2% target is judged against. Here is how to read headline vs core vs core-core, why Tokyo CPI leads the national print by a month, and how each release feeds through to JGB yields, the yen, and equity sectors.
The Nikkei 225 jumped 4.03% to 64,362.02 on a narrow, semiconductor-led rebound while the BOJ held rates at 1.0% with one dissent and USD/JPY closed at 160.28 amid intervention talk. The TSE short-sell ratio hit 43.8% — defensive positioning even into strength.
The Nikkei 225 rose 0.71% to 61,867.43 on a chip-led rally after Advantest’s guidance hike, but TOPIX fell 0.53% with only 3 of 17 sectors higher. Short selling ran 37.1% of TSE turnover, the Nikkei VI sits at a stressed 39.79, and the BOJ decides Friday.
The Nikkei 225 dropped 1.49% to 61,434 on a semiconductor sell-off sparked by SK Hynix earnings, yet 12 of 17 sectors advanced and Toyota jumped 7.2%. Short-selling eased to 33.6% of turnover ahead of Friday’s BOJ decision.
Japan’s Ministry of Finance decides currency intervention and the Bank of Japan merely executes it, funded from the Foreign Exchange Fund Special Account. Traders track a three-step escalation — scripted verbal warnings, rate checks, then actual yen-buying — and confirm operations after the fact through MOF’s monthly disclosures and BoJ current-account projections. Here is the full mechanism.
The Nikkei 225 fell 3.95% to 62,364.92 on Tuesday, its lowest close since May 21, as semiconductor names dropped double digits. Yet the short-selling ratio of 35.2% sat below its recent average, retail and auto stocks rallied, and the BOJ decision looms Friday.
Tokyo opened the week with a relief rally: the Nikkei added 0.5% and TOPIX outperformed as oil fell on a US-Iran pause, while the yen held near 163.5 and the TSE short-sell ratio printed 37.8% ahead of Friday’s BOJ decision.
The Nikkei 225 tells you what Japan’s most expensive stocks did; TOPIX tells you what the market did. A practical guide to price weighting, the NT ratio, and reading divergences between Japan’s two benchmark indices.
Tokyo’s chip complex bore the brunt of a global AI-spending scare on Friday: the Nikkei 225 fell 2.73% to 64,611 while defensives rallied, the yen held near 163.73, and the TSE short-selling ratio climbed to 43.8% — the top of its recent range.