A pedestrian walks past the Bank of Japan (BoJ) building in central Tokyo on July 28, 2023.
Richard A. Brooks | Afp | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell across the region on Tuesday as the Bank of Japan kicks off its two-day monetary policy meeting.
When the meeting concludes Wednesday, the BOJ is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate and trim its Japanese government bond purchases. Economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ to increase its benchmark interest rate to 0.1%, up from the current range of 0% to 0.1%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 0.7%, while the broad-based Topix was down 0.65%. Japan’s unemployment rate came in slightly lower than expected in July, at 2.5% compared to the 2.6% forecast by a Reuters poll of economists.
South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.9%, while the small-cap Kosdaq saw a smaller loss of 0.7%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.92%. Heavyweight miner Fortescue fell by as much as 9.23% after the Australian Financial Review reported that JPMorgan’s equity capital markets team was looking for buyers for 1.9 billion Australian dollars ($1.2 billion) of discounted Fortescue stock on behalf of an undisclosed institutional investor.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index lost 0.8%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 slipped marginally, extending its losses after closing at its lowest level in almost six months on Monday.
Overnight in the U.S., the three major indexes ended mixed, with the S&P 500 marginally higher as Wall Street geared up for a busy week of corporate earnings and looked ahead to a key policy announcement from the U.S. central bank.
Economists don’t expect the Fed to make any changes to the federal funds rate during this meeting, but traders will look for clues on whether the central bank will cut rates in September.
The broad market index gained 0.08%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.07%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.12%.
—CNBC’s Pia Singh and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.