Asian stocks mostly fell Monday while U.S. and European indexes opened higher, Anadolu Agency reported, as investors assessed technology losses ahead of policy decisions in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Near the close in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.3%, China’s Shanghai Composite had lost 0.2% and South Korea’s Kospi was 0.7% lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.4%, the exception among the regional indexes cited by Anadolu.
The mixed start followed a decline in U.S. shares on Oct. 23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.23%, the S&P 500 lost 0.52% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.21%. Anadolu linked selling in technology shares to concern about whether spending on artificial intelligence will produce sufficient returns. Telecommunications shares also fell.
European stocks were mostly lower on Oct. 23. Germany’s DAX 40 fell 0.75%, Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.32% and France’s CAC 40 declined 0.36%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB 30 gained 0.36%, Anadolu reported. The agency put France’s 10-year government bond yield at 5.07%, its highest level since 2002.
Moves elsewhere in the markets were mixed. Anadolu reported that the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell three basis points to 4.97% and that gold rose 0.5% to $4,015 an ounce. December-delivery Brent crude fell 1.9% to $114.50 a barrel.
Anadolu also identified the possibility of renewed tensions between the United States and Iran after the November midterm elections as a risk to investors’ appetite for riskier assets.
EconoTimes has previously covered Japanese bond yields ahead of the Fed and Bank of Japan decisions. U.S. growth and consumption data, along with earnings from Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet, are also on this week’s calendar, Anadolu reported.
The Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting concludes Oct. 28, and the European Central Bank’s policy meeting concludes Oct. 29. The Bank of Japan’s official calendar lists its next policy meeting for Oct. 29-30, with a monetary policy statement scheduled for Oct. 30.
