MARKETS: In Asia, the stock market is mixed – comments from the ECB are expected

In Asia, the stock market day has been uneven. Investors have not been sufficiently impressed by China’s stimulus package and mainland China’s stock markets have been mostly down this week. Today, Thursday, the changes have been small.

In Japan, the stock market has been falling due to the uncertainty related to the country’s politics. According to polls, the country’s leading Liberal Democratic Party may lose its majority in the parliamentary elections on October 27. The Nikkei index fell 0.7 percent and the broad Topix fell 0.1 percent.

China’s CSI-300 index was down 0.1 percent in the morning. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.2 percent. In Hong Kong, the market has primarily been driven by technology stocks. The stock market has been up about 0.9 in Australia, driven by strong employment statistics.

Today, Thursday, investors are waiting for the announcement of the European Central Bank’s meeting. Investors and economists expect a 0.25 percentage point drop in key interest rates. In addition, the market is pricing in a fairly frequent cycle of falling interest rates for the coming months as well. Director general Christine Lagarden comments can sway expectations and the interest rate and currency markets may fluctuate today.

The euro has weakened against the dollar this week by about 0.8 percent, and the trend has been slightly downward this morning as well.

At 9:00 a.m., the euro fetched 1.0854 dollars, 162.28 yen, 0.83582 pounds or 11.420 Swedish kronor. The dollar was 149.51 yen and the pound was 1.2986 dollars.