Stocks in Asia were higher overnight with the Nikkei (^N225) rising 1.9% on the day in Japan, nearing recent peaks, after a surprisingly dovish speech by Bank of Japan governor Ueda and ahead of a crucial ruling party vote that would determine the next prime minister of the country.
Ueda reaffirmed the bank’s longstanding position on interest rates, thus avoiding signalling any policy changes for this month following recent market speculation about an imminent rate hike. Market pricing has dipped to 59% for an October hike down from 65%. The Yen has weakened around a third of a percent.
Staying with Japan, the jobless rate increased to 2.6%, its highest level in over a year in August, from 2.3% the previous month, and against expectations of 2.4%. Additional data revealed that the job-to-applicant ratio decreased to 1.20 from 1.22, marking the lowest number of job openings since 2022.
Meanwhile the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.7% in Hong Kong, impacted by losses in EV stocks following a decline in Tesla overnight.
Trading volumes are subdued due to market holidays in China and South Korea, with Chinese markets remaining closed until the middle of next week.
Across the pond on Wall Street, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) crept 0.06% higher, able to shrug off shutdown jitters to creep to yet another record high. Things had looked even more promising at the open, before faltering following the employment data.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 0.4% higher, managing to reach a new record, even as the Mag-7 underperformed at (+0.08%), and the Dow Jones (^DJI) also gained 0.2%.
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At close: 15:45:03 GMT+9