Asia rallies on chip rebound and Japan pension-flow hopes as Iran risk fadesJapan to press GPIF on domestic assets as JGB selloff exposes BOJ independence fearsCiti holds $75 Brent base case for Q3: US-Iran deal, Hormuz reopening seenYen has continued to gain after finance minister Katayama’s commentsSouth Korea says won still misaligned, sees relief coming in H2SEO headline: (86 chars) Japan producer prices hit fastest pace since 2023, keeping BOJ on track to hikeYen up – Japan’s Katayama seeks measures to push GPIF, pension funds into domestic assetsPBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.7989 (vs. estimate at 6.7931)Japan’s Katayama vows fiscal trust as ruling party tweaks economic blueprintJapan’s Kiuchi says FX driven by rate gaps and inflation, not government viewJapan June 2026 PPI +7.1% y/y vs. expected 6.8% and prior 6.3%Sovereign wealth funds pivot to national priorities as AI spending hits $404 billionOpenAI’s Simo to step down permanently, complicating IPO plans as Altman seeks successorReports a US official says talks will continue with Iran on nukesMajor US indices close higher led by the Nasdaq index
Oil holds steady as Iran-US tensions cool, but Asia’s real story is chips and the yen
Crude traded in narrow ranges Friday with no fresh geopolitical escalation, easing worries over threats to energy infrastructure after this week’s strikesA US official said late Thursday that Washington remains committed to a resolution with Iran, with technical talks ongoing and regional mediators pushing to revive a nuclear dealJapan’s Nikkei rallied around two percent and South Korea’s Kospi jumped more than four percent on an AI chip rebound following a major US chipmaker’s capex pledgeThe yen and Japanese government bonds firmed as Tokyo signalled it will look to steer pension giant GPIF toward more domestic investmentThe won swung between a modest loss and a modest gain after Korea’s currency chief said the exchange rate remains misaligned with fundamentalsKospi remains on track for a third straight weekly decline despite Friday’s bounce
Oil markets caught their breath on Friday, trading in narrow ranges after a session largely devoid of fresh geopolitical headlines. The relative calm follows a tense stretch that included renewed strikes on US bases in the Gulf and on several sites inside Iran, but traders appear to have pared back fears that the conflict would spread to threaten energy infrastructure directly. Helping the mood, a US official said late Thursday that Washington remains committed to reaching a resolution with Iran and that technical discussions are continuing behind the scenes, even as public rhetoric has periodically hardened. Regional mediators are said to be pressing ahead with efforts to de-escalate the standoff and revive a broader nuclear agreement, offering some reassurance to a market that has been whipsawed by headline risk for months.
That steadier tone in oil stood in contrast to a livelier session across Asian equities, where a rebound in AI-linked chip stocks dominated the tape. Japan’s Nikkei climbed by around two percent and the broader Topix added close to three quarters of a percent, with chip-related names leading the advance after a major US memory maker’s large infrastructure investment pledge fuelled an overnight tech rally on Wall Street. Beyond equities, the more structurally significant move in Japan came in bonds and the currency, where the 10-year JGB yield pulled back from a three-decade high and the yen firmed, both tied to the finance minister’s remarks that Tokyo will explore measures to encourage the country’s giant public pension fund to substantially increase its domestic asset holdings.
South Korea’s Kospi surged more than four percent on the same chip-driven rebound, with heavyweight semiconductor, battery and steel names posting broad gains. Even so, the index remains on pace for a third consecutive weekly decline following a volatile run driven by shifting AI demand sentiment. The won slipped before recovering some ground after the country’s deputy finance minister said the currency remains misaligned with underlying fundamentals and that authorities retain ample room to intervene, adding that supply and demand dynamics should shift later in the year as exporters’ dollar holdings flow back through forward markets.
Taken together, Friday’s session suggests markets are, for now, treating the Iran-US standoff as contained rather than escalating, freeing risk appetite to focus on the AI trade and on Japan’s emerging pension-flow story heading into the weekend.
This article was written by fl6553e4b45d84486a91658a8b3f02bf22 at investinglive.com.