Japan, Tokyo city skyline, Tokyo Tower.
Prisma By Dukas | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific stocks and currencies fell on Thursday as broader markets fell after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the third time in a row and signaled fewer cuts to come. .
Investors praised the Bank of Japan’s decision to keep the policy rate unchanged at 0.25% for the third consecutive meeting. After the announcement, the Japanese yen fell to 155.40 yen to the dollar, compared to 154.60 yen before the Bank of Japan’s announcement.
Following the central bank’s actions, Nikkei Stock Average It came back online after the lunch break and its losses narrowed to 0.63% versus 0.96% previously. TOPIX fell 0.49%.
In South Korea, the Kospi index fell by 1.65%, and the Kosdaq index also fell by 1.65%. The Korean won is hovering near its lowest level since March 2009, and was last trading at 1,450.46 won to the dollar.
australian S&P/ASX 200 It traded 1.96% lower.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.88%, and mainland China’s CSI300 index fell 0.62%.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Thursday decided to cut interest rates by 25 basis points, in line with the Federal Reserve. The country’s currency is firmly pegged to the US dollar.
Elsewhere, New Zealand’s economy fell into recession, with the economy falling 1% quarter-on-quarter in the September quarter, according to official statistics agency Stats New Zealand. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline.
Overnight in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,123.03 points, or 2.58%, to 42,326.87, snapping its first 10-day losing streak since 1974. The S&P 500 index fell 2.95% to 5,872.16, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.56 points. % 19,392.69.
The selling on Wall Street came after the central bank cut its overnight borrowing rate by 25 basis points to its target range of 4.25% to 4.5%. The rate cuts had been widely expected, but the Fed indicated it would cut rates only twice in 2025, fewer than the four cuts it had previously predicted.
“We’ve moved pretty quickly to get to this point, but I think we’re definitely going to move slower going forward,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a post-meeting press conference.
—CNBC’s Brian Evans and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this report.
