Japan's Nikkei up 0.89%

Japanese markets rose notably after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato reaffirmed in a joint statement that neither country would target currency levels in their policies. The Nikkei average climbed 0.89 percent to 44,768.12, reaching a record high with chip-related stocks contributing to the rise. Tokyo Electron soared 5.5 percent and Advantest gained 1.8 percent. Technology investor SoftBank rose 1.82 percent to extent recent gains following Oracle's upbeat AI guidance tied to the $500 billion Stargate program.