The upscale Ginza shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday, May 4, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Wednesday as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut key lending rates and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he will step down in September.
Kishida said he would not run for re-election as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, pledging his support to the new LDP leader, according to a Reuters translation of his statement in Japanese.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand unexpectedly cut its key cash rate to 5.25%. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted the central bank would keep interest rates at 5.5%.
In South Korea, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of the country fell to 2.5% from 2.8% in July, hitting the lowest point since October 2023.
In Japan, business sentiment among manufacturers became slightly less confident in August compared with the previous month, according to the Reuters Tankan survey.
The Tankan survey – which tracks the Bank of Japan’s quarterly survey of the same name – showed the sentiment index for manufacturers fell to +10 in August, while the non-manufacturer index fell to +24. Both readings were +11 and +26 in the July survey.
That was due to lackluster demand from China weighing on corporate sentiment, Reuters reported, noting that the survey also comes after the Bank of Japan raised benchmark interest rates in July to their highest level since 2008.
of Japan Nikkei 225 It rose 0.27% after Kishida’s announcement, while the broad-based Topix rose 0.87%.
South Korea’s Kospi was 0.71 percent higher, while the small-cap Kosdaq jumped 1.62 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up a smaller 0.65%.
The country’s equity regulator sues ASX for ‘misrepresentations’ relates to the Clearing House Electronic Subregistration System, or CHESS, a computer system used to settle stock market transactions.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission pointed out that ASX had said the CHESS replacement project was “on track”, but at the time of the announcements, “the project was not tracking as planned and ASX had no reasonable basis to implies the project was on track to meet future milestones.”
of Hong Kong Hang Seng Index It fell 0.14%, but China’s CSI 300 fell 0.61%.
Overnight in the US, stocks rallied to near record levels last month after data showed producer prices rose less than expected in July.
The producer price index — a measure of wholesale inflation — rose 0.1 percent last month. Economists had expected the gauge to show a monthly rise of 0.2 percent in July, in line with the previous month’s reading, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.04% to 39,765.64, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.43%.
The S&P 500 rose 1.68%, coming within about 5% of its July record high.
Investors will turn their attention to July consumer price index data from the US due on Wednesday.
—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
