Forex Marketz Daily Forex News – Fully Markets Update
The Asian and Pacific Rim markets were mostly in the red by the afternoon on Thursday. This comes after the Peoples’ Bank of China (PBOC) kept their monetary policy and rates as is for the month.
The financial markets in Indonesia and Malaysia are closed today for public holidays.
In Japan, the Asian benchmark, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.7 percent and in Tokyo, the broader Topix index fell 0.59 percent.
Across the Korean Strait, in Seoul, the South Korean Kospi composite index as sown 2.59 percent and the Kosdaq tumbled 3.78 percent. The Yonhap news agency reported that new coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in Korea rose by triple digits for the seventh day in a row.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index saw its shares dip over 1.5 percent and elsewhere in the Asian and Pacific Rim shares on the Australian S&P ASX 200 fell 0.9 percent.
On the mainland, in China, shares on the Shanghai composite fell 0.4 percent and the Shenzhen component was down 0.11 percent.
Asian Traders Digest the PBPC Monetary Policy Decision
Early in the trade session, the Peoples’ Bank of China (PBOC) kept their monetary policy and key overnight lending rates the same for the month. The PBOC kept their one year loan prime rate (LPR) kept at 3.85 percent, and the five year LPR at 4.65 percent.
This move was widely expected by the financial markets.
The FOMC Minutes Indicate Worry with Policymakers
Yesterday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released their monthly monetary policy account. Monetary policy members are worried that the current conditions surrounding the coronavirus (Covid-19) situation will dampen the economic recovery over the near to medium term.
The FOMC also signalled that there were serious risks with the economic outlook. The minutes said that things were weighing “heavily on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term and was posing considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term.”
