Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda speaks at a press conference at the central bank’s headquarters in Tokyo.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell on Thursday as investors focused on the Bank of Japan’s interest rate decisions and key business activity figures in China.
Economists polled by Reuters predict the Bank of Japan will keep interest rates unchanged at 0.25%, but the statement will be closely watched for clues about when it will next raise rates.
In China, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that the manufacturing purchasing managers’ index entered expansion territory for the first time since April, with the manufacturing PMI at 50.1.
This was higher than expected in a Reuters poll of economists, which expected the manufacturing PMI to fall to 49.9, a slower decline than last month’s 49.8.
Japanese benchmark Nikkei Stock Average fell by 0.37%, and the comprehensive TOPIX fell by 0.4%.
Korean Kospi fell 1.17%, leading the decline in Asia, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.43%.
Investors are evaluating Samsung Electronics’ third-quarter financial results, which revealed a decline in profits compared to the previous quarter. Most notably, Samsung’s semiconductor division reported third-quarter operating profit of 3.86 trillion won (about $2.8 billion), a 40% decrease from the previous quarter.
australian S&P/ASX 200 The stock started the day down 0.15%.
In contrast, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.6%, while mainland China’s CSI300 index traded almost flat.
U.S. stocks fell overnight as investors digested a flurry of earnings reports and focused on further results from mega-cap tech companies.
Alphabet saw strong quarterly revenue growth from its cloud business, beating analysts’ expectations. The stock price rose nearly 3%. However, chipmaker AMD’s stock price fell more than 10% after its fourth-quarter earnings outlook failed to impress investors.
Tech giants Apple and Amazon are expected to report results on Thursday, following the results of Metaplatform and Microsoft.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.56% after hitting a record high. The S&P 500 fell 0.33% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.22% to close at $42,141.54.
—CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
