The Nikkei 225 Index rose 1.5% to above 61,700 on Friday, marking gains in four of the past five sessions and putting the benchmark more than 7% higher for the week—its strongest weekly performance since June. Japanese equities rebounded from Thursday’s losses as investors reassessed the broader implications of Nvidia’s leadership changes for the artificial intelligence sector. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stepped down following reports of extramarital affairs, with CFO Colette Kress taking over as interim CEO.
At the same time, market participants are looking ahead to Anthropic’s highly anticipated IPO next week, which has drawn orders totaling roughly six times the number of shares on offer, underscoring strong investor appetite for the AI firm. Technology and AI-related names led the rebound, including Kioxia Holdings (up 2.8%), Advantest (6.4%), Tokyo Electron (2.9%), Lasertec (2.9%) and Ibiden Co. (2.5%).
