The Nikkei 225 opens the day as the clearest story, up 1.21% to 70,824.86 and now 47.93% higher over the past year β€” the strongest longer-run move anywhere in the data. Crude firmed alongside it and the dollar opened soft across the majors. Crypto was the exception, opening broadly red.

Equities

The Nikkei’s 1.21% lift tops every instrument on the board, backed by a 5.58% week and a 7.24% month that set it well apart from peers. Wall Street followed higher: the S&P 500 added 0.60% to 7,826.19, the Nasdaq 100 0.48% to 31,249.09, and the Dow 0.47% to 51,554.07, leaving the Nasdaq 25.85% up on the year. Europe was split β€” the IBEX 35 rose 0.46% and the DAX 40 0.19%, while the CAC 40 slipped 0.30% and sits 5.62% lower on the month. The Hang Seng was near flat at 24,288.76, down 10.51% over the year.

Currencies

The dollar opened on the back foot across the majors. EUR/USD firmed 0.34% to 1.1254 and GBP/USD 0.38% to 1.3267, while USD/JPY held near flat at 158.11. The sharpest dollar softness came against the commodity and high-beta crosses: USD/NOK fell 1.06% to 9.49073, USD/ZAR 0.99% to 16.471, USD/PLN 0.67% to 3.87968, and USD/MXN 0.66% to 17.952. USD/CAD eased 0.40% to 1.42055. The moves stay modest against the longer picture β€” EUR/USD remains down 3.21% on the month.

Crypto

Crypto is the session’s weak spot. UNI led all decliners, down 5.75% to 8.5575, with Polkadot off 2.04% at 1.202, Dogecoin 1.79% at 0.0935, and Litecoin 1.61% at 68.93. The majors held firmer β€” Bitcoin dipped 0.22% to 85,559.06 and Ethereum 0.45% to 2,696.84 β€” and both remain higher over the month, by 8.19% and 8.34%. The month’s standouts sit further down the list: GRT is up 51.31% and XTZ 46.80% over 30 days, even as both eased today.

Metals and energy

Silver added 0.72% to 61.34 and gold 0.70% to 4,163.10, though both are lower on the month, silver by 7.27% and gold 5.52%. Palladium was near flat at 1,176.93 but stays the metals laggard, down 16.03% over the month. Crude firmed on both grades: USOil rose 0.95% to 89.19 and UKOil 0.79% to 99.94, the latter 52.38% higher on the year.

Into the day, crypto remains the board’s soft spot while the Nikkei and crude carry the longer-run momentum.