Asian Shares Mostly Lower in Uninspired Trade; BOJ Leaves Policy Unchanged

Most major Asian stock indexes were trending lower on Thursday, reflecting the overnight weakness in U.S. equity futures and mixed earnings results reported after the Wall Street close.

Economic releases were on the light side with the major news, the Bank of Japan Monetary Policy Statement, Outlook Report and Policy Rate decision. Later today, investors will get the opportunity to react to the U.S. Durable Goods report.

At 04:20 GMT, Japan‘s Nikkei 225 Index is trading 22273.37, up 73.37 or +0.33 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is at 29786.01, down 19.82 or -0.07% and South Koreas KOSPI Index is trading 2195.55, down 5.48 or -0.25%.

Chinas Shanghai Composite is trading 3178.95, down 22.66 or -0.71%. Australia is on holiday so the S&P/ASX 200 is not trading.

BOJ Offers Little Surprises

The Bank of Japan left its key policy rate unchanged on Thursday, while pledging to provide substantial stimulus into 2020 to address slow growth and low inflation. BOJ policymakers also voted to hold its policy at minus 0.1 percent, in line with forecasts. The central bank also said it would continue to purchase Japanese government bonds so the yield on the 10-year note remains around zero percent.

The BOJ once again acknowledged weak consumer price inflation and the likelihood that its price stability target would “take time to achieve”, but insisted that inflation is “likely to increase gradually to 2 percent”. The BOJ also forecast the economy to continue on a “moderate expanding trend”, despite the impact of the global economic slowdown.

After the U.S. Close…

Microsoft shares jumped more than 3% after the software giant reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue in its fiscal third-quarter report. Microsoft also hit the $1 trillion market cap mark.

Facebook shares rose around 9% in after-hours trading despite the company announcing that it could take a one-time charge of as much as $5 billion due to an ongoing Federal Trade Commission inquiry. The social media giant also reported that the company exceeded revenue expectations and matched estimates for its daily user growth.

Tesla reported a wider-than-expected loss and less revenue than anticipated during the first quarter as demand for its electric cars waned after the company lost a valuable tax credit for buyers on January 1. Its shares, which closed down by about 2 percent Wednesday, were about flat after the markets closed. The news wasnt much of a surprise since the company previously warned that first-quarter income will “be negatively impacted” because of “lower than expected delivery volumes and several pricing adjustments.”

In Europe, UBS reported a 27% fall in net profit for its first quarter, compared to the same period the year before, with the Swiss bank citing challenging market conditions.