Bank of Japan decision, China PMI, Samsung earnings

Asia-Pacific markets fell on Thursday as investors eyed the Bank of Japan’s interest rate decision, as well as key business activity numbers from China.

The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate at 0.25%, unchanged from the previous meeting. The bank issued a Two-line statement The decision was simply stated, with no clues about the timing of the next rate hike.

In China, the country’s manufacturing PMI flipped into expansion territory for the first time since April, with the National Bureau of Statistics revealing that its manufacturing PMI reached 50.1.

This exceeds the expectations of economists polled by Reuters, who expected the manufacturing PMI to come in at 49.9, a smaller contraction than the previous month’s 49.8.

Japan standard Nikki 225 The index fell 0.5% after the Bank of Japan’s decision, closing at 39,081.25 and snapping a three-day winning streak. The broad-based Topix index fell 0.3%, also ending three straight days of gains and closing at 2,695.51.

South Korea Cosby It was down 1.45% at 2,556.15, topping losses in Asia and reaching its lowest level since September 11, but small-cap shares Kosdaq rose 0.66%, closing at 743.06.

Investors are weighing the third-quarter earnings of heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which revealed lower profits than the previous quarter. It is worth noting that Samsung’s semiconductor unit announced third-quarter operating profits of 3.86 trillion won (about $2.8 billion), down 40% from the previous quarter.

Australia Standard & Poor’s/ASX 200 It fell by 0.25%, closing at 8,160 points, reaching its lowest level since October 4.

In contrast, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.13% as of the last hour, and mainland China’s CSI 300 Index was marginally above the flat line and closed at 3,891.03.

Overnight in the United States, stocks fell as investors digested a deluge of earnings reports and looked toward more results from the tech giants.

Alphabet beat analyst expectations as the company saw strong quarterly revenue growth from its cloud business. Shares jumped nearly 3%. However, shares of chipmaker AMD fell more than 10%, as fourth-quarter revenue guidance failed to impress investors.

Tech giants Apple and Amazon are scheduled to release on Thursday, following results from Meta Platforms and Microsoft.

The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.56% after earlier rising to a new record high. The S&P 500 fell 0.33%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.22%, closing at 42,141.54.

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