According to Jinshi, the Nikkei 225 index closed at a record high at midday, up 1.49% at 41,386.8 points. Tokyo Electron, a maker of chipmaking equipment, rose 3.88%, providing the biggest support to the Nikkei index. Takehiko Masuzawa, head of trading in Japan at Phillip Securities, said that the market expected Powell's remarks to hint at policy easing, boosting U.S. chip stocks overnight, while Japanese chip stocks followed the trend. Powell will speak to Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday, and CME Fed Watch shows that traders now believe that the probability of the Fed cutting interest rates by at least 25 basis points by September is more than 75%, up from 60% last week.