On July 28, 2023, a pedestrian walked past the Bank of Japan (BoJ) building in central Tokyo.
Richard A. Brooks | AFP | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific stocks fell across the board on Tuesday as the Bank of Japan began a two-day monetary policy meeting.
At the end of Wednesday's meeting, the Bank of Japan is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate and cut its purchases of Japanese government bonds. Economists polled by Reuters expect the Bank of Japan to raise its benchmark interest rate to 0.1% from the current range of 0% to 0.1%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 Index fell 0.57%, while the broad-based Topix fell 0.56%. Japan unemployment rate Growth in July was slightly lower than expected, at 2.5%, compared with a Reuters poll of economists forecasting 2.6%.
Korean Cospi The Kosdaq index fell 0.73%, with the small-cap Kosdaq index falling more modestly, reaching 0.4%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.7%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index futures were at 17,212 points, lower than the Hang Seng Index’s last closing point of 17,238,34 points.
The three major U.S. stock indexes were mixed overnight. S&P 500 Index Stocks edged higher as Wall Street braced for a busy week of corporate earnings and anticipated key policy releases from the Federal Reserve.
Economists do not expect the Fed to make any changes to the federal funds rate at this meeting, but traders will be looking for clues on whether the Fed will cut interest rates in September.
The broader market index rose 0.08%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.07%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.12%.
—CNBC’s Pia Singh and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.