A Japanese national flag flies outside the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Sept. 27, 2021. The Japanese central bank has for years adopted ultra-easy monetary policy in a bid to achieve its ever elusive inflation target.
Toru Hanai | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific market were lower on Thursday as investors focus on the Bank of Japan’s first policy meeting led by new BOJ governor Kazuo Ueda.
Ueda is expected to maintain the ultra loose monetary policy of predecessor Haruhiko Kuroda for now, but expectations are that he will plot a path out of this policy in the future, according to media reports.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.41% in early trade, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.14%.
South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.1% on its open and the Kosdaq dropped 0.42%, as electronics giant Samsung Electronics posted a 94% year-on-year drop in net profit for the first quarter.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also seems set for a lower open as futures tied to the index traded at 19,735, compared to the 19,757 close on Wednesday.
Singapore’s preliminary estimates for its unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2023, is also expected later today.
Overnight in the U.S., stocks ended mixed as banking fears eclipsed Big Tech earnings on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.68%, paring earlier gains. The S&P 500 slid 0.38%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.47%, trimming gains after jumping as much as 1.43% in the trading day.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Tanaya Macheel contributed to this report
