Stock market today: Asian shares mostly lower as Bank of Japan meets, China property shares fall

BANGKOK– Asian stocks mostly fell on Monday as the Bank of Japan began a two-day meeting that is being watched for signs of a change in the central bank’s long-standing near-zero interest rate policy.

US oil and futures prices rose.

Investors have been speculating for months that rising prices would push Japan’s central bank to finally abandon its excessively loose monetary policy. But the meeting that ends Tuesday is not expected to result in any major change.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.8% to 32,708.35, while the US dollar rose against the Japanese yen, rising to 142.20 from 142.11.

The Bank of Japan has kept its benchmark rate at -0.1% for a decade, hoping to stimulate investment and borrowing to help drive strong, sustained growth. One of the objectives is to bring inflation to a target of 2%. But while inflation has risen, wages have failed to keep up, and central bank Governor Kazuo Ueda has remained cautious about major measures at a time of deep uncertainty about the outlook for the global economy.

Renewed selling in real estate stocks sent Chinese stocks lower.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.9% to 16,633.98 and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.1% to 2,938.79.

Indebted developer Country Garden lost 2.4%, while China Evergrande fell 1.3%. Sino-Ocean Group Holding lost 2.2%.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&The P/ASX 200 fell 0.3% to 7,420.30. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2% to 2,569.40 and Bangkok’s SET fell 0.2%.

On Friday, the S.&The P 500 ended down less than 0.1% at 4,719.19. But he still remains within 1.6% of his all-time high set early last year, and closed out a seventh straight week of wins, his longest streak in six years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks a smaller portion of the U.S. stock market, rose 0.2% to 37,305.16 and set a record for the third day in a row. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4% to 14,813.92.

“Like the S&P approaches record levels, market participants seem undaunted. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that there is no compelling reason to fade this rally until concrete evidence emerges indicating significant economic or inflationary headwinds,” Stephen Innes of API Asset Management said in a note.

Stocks generally rose last week after the Federal Reserve appeared to give a nod to hopes that it has ended raising interest rates and will begin cutting them in the new year. Lower rates not only give a boost to the prices of all types of investments, but also relieve pressure on the economy and the financial system.

The Federal Reserve’s goal has been to slow the economy and reduce investment prices enough through high interest rates to control inflation. Then you have to release the brakes at exactly the right moment. If you wait too long, the economy could fall into a painful recession. If you act too soon, inflation could accelerate again and add misery for everyone.

Inflation peaked in June 2022 at 9.1%, the most painful inflation Americans have experienced since 1981.

A preliminary report on Friday indicated that growth in U.S. business activity may be picking up. He cited “more flexible financial conditions,” which is another way of describing market movements that could encourage businesses and individuals to spend more.

The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that it expects inflation to nearly reach the Federal Reserve’s 2% target rate in 2024 as overall growth slows. Unemployment is expected to rise through 2025, according to updated economic projections for the next two years.

In other trading early Monday, benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 34 cents to $71.77 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 15 cents to $71.43 on Friday.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 31 cents to $76.86 a barrel.

The euro rose to $1.0912 from $1.0897.