Asia-Pacific markets were mixed Friday, with the Bank of Japan’s October meeting minutes showing board members debated on how to communicate the shift in their yield control stance.
Japan’s headline inflation rate slowed to 2.8%, down from 3.3% in October, the slowest pace of inflation since July 2022.
Core inflation — which strips out prices of fresh food — came in at 2.5%, in line with expectations of a Reuters poll of economists and lower than October’s figure of 2.9%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled almost 2%, leading losses in Asia as shares of heavyweights Tencent and NetEase plunged after China released draft rules on curbing excessive gaming and spending.
Separately, the mainland Chinese CSI 300 rose 0.19% and ended at 3,337.23.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell marginally, staying largely near the flatline in the trading session and closing at 7,501.6.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rebounded marginally after leading losses in Asia on Thursday, with the index ending at 33,169.05 and the Topix gaining 0.45% to close at 2,336.43.
South Korea’s Kospi reversed earlier gains to end the day marginally below the flatline, while the small-cap Kosdaq slid 0.56% and finished at 854.62.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes rebounded, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.03% to recover from its worst day since September as the year-end rally resumed.
That places the broad market index about 1% from its closing high and 1.5% from its intraday record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.87%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.26% to 14,963.87.
