TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 share index soared as much as 10.7% early Tuesday, a day after it plunged the most in 37 years.
The index gave up some of those gains as it wavered throughout the day but closed 10.2% higher at 34,675.46. Other Asian markets also were higher after sharp losses on Wall Street that were dramatic but not on the same scale as Monday’s 12.4% nosedive in Tokyo.
Many shares rose by double-digit percentages similar to their losses a day before, with automaker Toyota Motor Corp. rocketed 12.8%.
Computer chip maker Tokyo Electron jumped 16.6%, Honda Motor Co. advanced 14.7% and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was up 5.8%.
The losses of the past several sessions followed a move by the Bank of Japan last week to raise its main interest rate from nearly zero. Such a move helps boost the value of the Japanese yen, but it also led traders to scramble out of deals where they had borrowed money for virtually no cost in Japan and invested it elsewhere around the world.
Officials from Japan's Finance Ministry, Financial Service Agency and the Bank of Japan met Tuesday to address the recent market gyrations.
Atsushi Mimura, a top ministry bureaucrat, declined to comment directly on the specifics of the market, as is government policy. But he noted that market experts were saying recent volatility reflects various global developments, and markets are going up and down elsewhere as well.
He cited geopolitical risks like rising tensions in the Middle East and recent economic data. He also pointed to increases in wages and investment in Japan.
“We maintain the view that the Japanese economy is gradually recovering, going forward,” he told reporters.
The government officials and the central bank reconfirmed their agreement to watch internal and external fiscal situation, and work together “as one,” said Mimura, vice finance minister for international affairs.
When asked, Mimura declined to comment on whether the recent BOJ rate hike had triggered the market's movements. He said the government was closely watching the foreign exchange rates and aiming for stability as always.
Various factors combined to cause Monday's carnage, according to Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management, likening Tuesday's bounce to a “lifeboat.”
“As always with the market, take this to heart: Yesterday’s misery often turns into today’s punchline. The swift twists and turns of trading can transform what seemed like a dire situation into a fleeting memory, one that’s often laughed about in trading rooms the next day,” he said.
The Nikkei is now up 7.7% from a year ago, but more than 9% below its level three months ago. Its biggest ever percentage gain was 14.2% in October 2008.
FILE - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on July 30, 2024 in New York. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index has lost 12.4% on Monday, August 5, 2024, in the latest bout of sell-offs that are jolting world markets. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index soars more than 10% after plunging a day earlier
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index soars more than 10% after plunging a day earlier
A monitor shows the Nikkei 225 stock index in Tokyo, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, indicating at one point, over 2,537 points of lowering. (Shohei Miyano/Kyodo News via AP)
Gaza’s Health Ministry says an Israeli strike on Tuesday on a tent camp in a designated humanitarian zone killed at least 19 people.
The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said the strike left craters up to 10 meters (32 feet) deep. The Israeli military said it used precise munitions against a group of militants.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the toll could rise. The ministry is also part of the Hamas-run government. Its figures are widely seen as generally reliable. Its tallies from previous wars have largely coincided with figures from independent researchers, the U.N. and even the Israeli military.
The Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. They abducted another 250 and are still holding around 100. Around a third of them are believed to be dead.
Here's the latest:
CAIRO — Turkey’s foreign minister is calling on Arab and Muslim states to band together to try to end the war in Gaza. It's the first time a Turkish official has addressed the Arab League in more than a decade.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is the first to attend the gathering of Arab states since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended in 2011. Turkey later fell out with many member countries.
“We cannot accept that Palestinian lives, Arab lives and Muslim lives matter less than others,” Fidan said Tuesday. “Our ranks must be watertight.”
Fidan also expressed concern at increasing violence in the West Bank. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist from the U.S. who also had Turkish citizenship, was shot dead Friday following a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military says she was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces aiming at someone else.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israeli security forces “need to make some fundamental changes in the way they operate in the West Bank," including changes to rules of engagement. He spoke in London days after a U.S. citizen was shot and killed in the occupied West Bank while protesting Israeli settlements there.
Blinken called the shooting “not acceptable. It has to change, and we’ll be making that clear to the seniormost members of the Israeli government.” He said it’s clear there are “serious issues that need to be dealt with, and we will insist that they be dealt with.”
The Israeli military said Tuesday that 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces aiming at someone else.
The White House earlier said it was “deeply disturbed” by the killing of Eygi, who also held Turkish citizenship, and called on Israel to investigate. Her family seeks an independent investigation.
JERUSALEM — An Israeli strike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted “significant” Hamas militants and disputed the death toll.
It was among the deadliest strikes yet in Muwasi, a sprawl of crowded tent camps along the Gaza coast that Israel designated as a humanitarian zone for hundreds of thousands of civilians to seek shelter from the Israel-Hamas war.
Gaza’s Civil Defense said its first responders recovered 40 bodies from the strike and were still looking for people. It said entire families were killed in their tents.
An Associated Press camera operator saw three large craters at the scene, where first responders and displaced people were sifting through the sand and rubble with garden tools and their bare hands by the light of mobile phones.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants who were operating in a command-and-control center. It said its forces used precise munitions, aerial surveillance and other means to avoid civilian casualties. Hamas released a statement denying any militants were in the area. Neither Israel nor Hamas provided evidence to substantiate their claims.
International law allows for strikes on military targets in areas where civilians are present, provided the force used is proportionate to the military objective — something that is often disputed and would need to be settled in a court, which almost never happens.
JERUSALEM — The United Nations agency in charge of aid for displaced Palestinians said the Israeli military stopped a convoy for more than eight hours on Monday, despite it coordinating with the troops.
The agency’s head Philippe Lazzarini said the staffers who were held had been trying to work on a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza and Gaza City.
“The convoy was stopped at gun point just after the Wadi Gaza checkpoint with threats to detain UN staff,” he wrote on the social platform X. “Heavy damage was caused by bulldozers to the UN armoured vehicles.”
He said the staff and the convoy later returned to a U.N. base but it was unclear if a polio vaccination campaign would take place Tuesday in northern Gaza.
“UN Staff must be allowed to undertake their duties in safety + be protected at all times in accordance with international humanitarian law," he wrote. “Gaza is no different.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The vaccination drive, launched after doctors discovered the first polio case in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years, aims to vaccinate 640,000 children during a war that has destroyed the health care system.
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. An Israeli strike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants, allegations denied by the militant group. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners pray over the covered bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in the Muwasi, outside the hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. An Israeli strike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants, allegations denied by the militant group. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. An Israeli strike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants, allegations denied by the militant group. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. An Israeli strike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants, allegations denied by the militant group. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. An Israeli strike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants, allegations denied by the militant group. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. An Israeli strike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants, allegations denied by the militant group. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Muwasi, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. An Israeli strike killed at least 40 people and wounded 60 others early Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. Israel said it targeted "significant" Hamas militants, allegations denied by the militant group. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
ADDS WITNESS SAYS: Mourners carry the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who a witness says was fatally shot by Israeli soldiers while participating in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank, during her funeral procession in the West Bank city of Nablus, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
A truck of humanitarian aids waits to cross the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Israeli soldiers stand guard near the site of a deadly shooting attack where Israeli officials say three people were shot and killed at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
ADDS WITNESS SAYS: Mourners pray over the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who a witness says was fatally shot by Israeli soldiers while participating in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank, during her funeral procession in the West Bank city of Nablus, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Trucks of humanitarian aids wait to cross the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Palestinians take shelter from the Israeli bombardment at a school in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
