ASIA NIGHT SESSION | Nikkei Futures Add 430 Points, Hang Seng Night Contract Gains 279 as Waller Eases Rate-Hike Fears

According to HKET, JPX and TAIFEX, Asian index futures rose in the overnight session after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller signaled he would favor holding interest rates steady if inflation data cooled, easing rate-hike concerns; the Dow rose 624 points, the yen gained about 2% toward 155 per dollar, and gold added over 2%. Japan reported July household spending fell 3.6% year-on-year, a steeper drop than the 1.6% decline economists had expected. On the Osaka Exchange, Nikkei 225 index futures for September 2026 delivery ended the night session at 64,660, up 430 points or about 0.67%, trading between 64,220 and 64,710, per JPX official data. No Korean overnight index-futures report was available for the session, so KOSPI night futures are not covered here. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index night futures closed up 279 points at 25,421, while the China concept index fell 0.8% to 6,002. Hong Kong ADRs were broadly higher: HSBC rose 2.10% against its local close, Alibaba's U.S. shares added 1.93%, Tencent ADRs gained 1.12%, and Meituan ADRs rose 0.91%. Taiwan's TAIEX futures for September 2026 delivery closed the night session at 46,487, up 668 points or 1.46%, on volume of 38,370 contracts, after trading as high as 46,559 and reclaiming the 46,000 level; the contract opened at 45,902 with a low of 45,726, per TAIFEX.