HONG KONG (AP) – Asian stocks were mostly lower Friday as Chinese markets fell as investors awaited a key briefing on details of the next stimulus package this weekend.
US futures and oil prices fell.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.6% to close at 39,605.80. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.1% to 8,214.50.
Chinese stocks fell in Friday trading. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.9% to 3,025.31, while the CSI300 index, which tracks the top 300 stocks traded in the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets, fell 3.2%.
Hong Kong markets were closed on Friday due to a public holiday. The index fell more than 9% on Tuesday, its worst decline since the 2008 global financial crisis.
All market attention will be on China’s Ministry of Finance’s briefing scheduled for Saturday, where it is expected to announce a long-awaited fiscal stimulus package.
Details of an economic stimulus plan from Chinese officials disappointed markets earlier this week, but many people were skeptical that the new fiscal policy was intended to boost the sluggish real estate market and boost economic growth, the previous one in late September. I expected them to follow the procedures announced.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s central bank on Friday cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.25%, signaling a shift to an easing cycle aimed at spurring economic growth. The Bank of Korea’s interest rate cut is the first since 2020 and comes after gross domestic product (GDP) contracted in the second quarter and inflation fell below the central bank’s 2% target in September. .
In Seoul, the Kospi fell 0.1% to 2,596.91.
U.S. stocks fell modestly from their previous record on Thursday, following reports that inflation was slightly higher than expected last month and that more workers filed for unemployment benefits than last week.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2% to 5,780.05, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 42,454.12, after hitting a new high the day before. The Nasdaq Composite Stock Price Index fell 0.1% to 18,282.05.
Stock prices had been soaring to record levels, largely on excitement about interest rate easing, but the Federal Reserve has broadened its focus beyond fighting high inflation to keeping the economy strong and cutting interest rates. There is.
Inflation slowed to 2.4% in September from 2.5% in August, according to the Consumer Price Index, but economists had expected it to slow more sharply to 2.3%, according to a report on Thursday. And after ignoring fluctuations in food, gasoline, and other energy prices, the underlying trends that economists argue may be better at predicting where inflation is headed than expected are It was a little hot.
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At the same time, another report said 258,000 U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. While this number is relatively low compared to history, it was a sharper acceleration than economists expected. Hurricane Helen and a strike by Boeing workers may have played a role in worsening the numbers.
In the bond market, U.S. Treasury yields rose immediately after the economic data release, but have since swung up and down as traders tried to handicap what it meant for the Fed.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury remained at 4.07%, where it was late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more accurately reflects expectations for the Fed, fell to 3.96% from 4.02% late Wednesday.
In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 92 cents to $74.93 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard crude, fell $1.04 to $78.36 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 148.68 yen from 148.51 yen. The euro rose to $1.0937 from $1.0936.
