Asia markets mostly slip ahead of Bank of Japan decision, China factory activity figures

Asia-Pacific markets slipped Thursday as investors look to the Bank of Japan’s rate decision, as well as key business activity figures from China.

Economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ will hold rates at 0.25%, although the statement will be parsed for any clues on the timing of its next rate hike.

In China, the National Bureau of Statistics is set to release the country’s official purchasing managers index numbers for September, with the manufacturing PMI forecast to come in at 49.9, a softer contraction than the 49.8 the month before.

Still, that would be the sixth straight month of contraction for the country’s manufacturing sector.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 fell 0.33%, while the broad based Topix slipped 0.36%.

South Korea’s Kospi was 1.33% lower, leading losses in Asia, while the small cap Kosdaq was down 1.25%. Investors will look to heavyweight Samsung Electronics’ third-quarter earnings, which are expected later Thursday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 started the day 0.2% lower.

However, futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 20,511, pointing to a stronger open compared to the HSI’s close of 20,380.64.

Overnight in the U.S., stocks slipped as investors digested a deluge of earnings reports and looked toward more results from megacap technology companies.

Alphabet exceeded analysts’ expectations as the company saw strong quarterly revenue growth from its cloud business. Shares jumped almost 3%. However, Shares of chipmaker AMD slid more than 10% as its fourth-quarter revenue guidance failed to impress investors.

Tech titans Apple and Amazon are due Thursday, following results from Meta Platforms and Microsoft.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.56% after earlier rising to a fresh record high. The S&P 500 slid 0.33%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.22%, to close at 42,141.54.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim and Pia Singh contributed to this report.