The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Nikkei 225 index closed today’s session down 0.88%. The yen remains volatile after recent rumors that the next Bank of Japan governor will be Kazuo Ueda. The dollar-yen ratio is up by 0.60% around 132.18.
With regards to the other Asian stock exchanges, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange fell by 0.55%, while the Shanghai Stock Exchange was up by 0.66%. The Seoul Stock Exchange is down 0.64%, the Sydney Stock Exchange is down 0.21%.
Although according to economists Ueda is not a super hawkish banker on rates, the markets are betting on a normalization of monetary policy in Japan, currently focused on negative rates (-0.10%) and control of the yield curve.
The appointment by the Japanese government of the next governor of the Bank of Japan who will replace the current number one Haruhiko Kuroda will be announced tomorrow, when in Japan the data on GDP for the fourth quarter will also be announced of 2022, expected to expand by 2% on an annual basis and by 0.5% on a quarterly basis.
Focus on Singapore’s GDP data, which highlighted a growth rate of the Asian economy, during 2022, of +3.6%, much lower than the +8.9% in 2021.
During the fourth quarter of 2022, Singapore’s GDP rose by 2.1% on an annual basis, compared to +4% in the third quarter, and against the +2.3% expected by economists.
Singapore’s trade and industry minister expects a growth rate of between 0.5% and 2.5% for 2023.
Futures on the main US stock indexes under pressure, after a difficult week, which saw the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lose respectively 1.11% and 2.41%, reporting the worst week since December. The Dow Jones reported a weekly decline of -0.17%.
At around 7.45am Italian time, futures on the Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell respectively by 0.22%, 0.27% and 0.29%.