
In the global economy, tariffs are usually kryptonite for equity markets, particularly those of export-benchmarked economies. But on Wednesday, investors observing Japan ETFs saw a plot twist worthy of a geopolitical thriller.
Even though President Donald Trump declared a 15% tariff on Japanese imports, stocks such as the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (NYSE:EWJ), Franklin FTSE Japan ETF (NYSE:FLJP), First Trust Japan AlphaDEX Fund (NASDAQ:FJP), and WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (NYSE:DXJ) surged sharply, with prices gaining 3.5%–5% by midday trading.