Asia-Pacific markets traded mostly higher on Thursday after Wall Street rally stalled overnight and as investors assessed a surprise interest rate cut by South Korea.
The Bank of Korea unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.0%. Market watchers polled by Reuters had forecast the BOK to pause its policy easing this month, following a 25 bps cut in October.
South Korea’s blue-chip Kospi index finished marginally higher at 2,504.67 while the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.35% to end at 694.39.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.56% to close at 38,349.06 while the broad-based Topix added 0.82% to end at 2,687.28.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 0.45% to a new record close of 8,444.3.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.31% in its final hour of trade, giving back some of the gains after logging its largest daily jump this month on Wednesday.
Mainland China’s CSI 300 index was down by 0.88% to end the day at 3,872.55.
Overnight in the U.S., declines in big technology names pulled markets lower in a thin trading session.
Chipmaking powerhouse Nvidia lost more than 1%, while Meta Platforms slid 0.8%. Dell
and HP
dropped more than 12% and 11%, respectively, following weak earnings forecasts.
The S&P 500 declined 0.38% to 5,998.74, snapping a seven-day winning streak. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.6% to end at 19,060.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 138.25 points, or 0.31%, to finish at 44,722.06, reversing course gaining more than 140 points.
The moves also followed the latest reading of the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE.
The Federal Reserve-favoured inflation gauge rose 2.3% on an annualized basis, accelerating from 2.1% in September. The so-called core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, climbed 2.8% in the 12 months through October, up from 2.7% in the previous month.
Both matched the expectations from economists polled by Reuters, according to LSEG data.
The U.S. market will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
source: cnbc.com
