The Asia-Pacific Stock Exchanges (APX) continue with the negative dynamics on Friday morning. Major stock indexes are decreasing against the background of unresolved problems and difficulties that are predicted by experts in the future.
At the moment, market participants are in no hurry to show excessive initiative in their work, as they await the US presidential elections. In addition, the very exciting issue of a new financial incentive program also remains unresolved, which also forces investors to conduct more restrained work. However, financial incentives are required not only for American citizens and enterprises; the European region also needs support measures due to the worsening epidemiological situation and the introduction of strict quarantine in a number of countries. In this regard, the ECB began to discuss possible adjustments to its instruments, but not earlier than December of this year. And the latter will be relevant only under certain conditions, namely, poor macroeconomic statistics and corresponding forecasts for the next year.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1.32%. Note that the fall has continued for the fifth session in a row, which may ultimately cause the maximum decline in a week. Moreover, this weekly decline is likely to be larger in volume than the full month's decline.
Despite this, the statistics on economic growth in the country seemed satisfactory. The unemployment rate in the first month of autumn remained at the same level as a month ago at 3%, which is the lowest value over the last two years. At the same time, experts said that the growth of the indicator would be inevitable to at least 3.1%. However, the total number of unemployed Japanese citizens increased by 0.5% and reached 2.06 million.
Another extremely revealing indicator is the number of applicants per number of open vacancies. Minimal changes were recorded. There were 103 real vacancies per 100 applicants in September, whereas a month earlier there were 104. In this case, the figure is considered one of the lowest in the last seven years.
Recall that during Thursday's meeting, the Bank of Japan did not begin to make changes in its monetary policy, leaving all interest rates at the same level. At the same time, the forecast for the country's economy for the next year was revised and adjusted downward.
China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.5%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index supported the negative trend and declined 0.89%. As it became known, the Chinese government nevertheless put forward for consideration another long-term program for the development of the country's economy until 2035, as well as its medium-term analog for the next four years (from 2021 to 2025). The priority areas were the increase in domestic consumption, as well as the build-up of our own scientific and technical developments.
South Korea's KOSPI index dropped 1.5%. The statistics also exhibited satisfactory data. The total volume of production of industrial goods in the first month of autumn increased immediately by 8% on a yearly basis. Recall that in the previous period, the indicator showed a decline of 2.6%. Analysts had expected growth, but not more than 1.7%.
The level of retail sales in the country also increased by 4.4% in September, while earlier the growth was recorded by only 0.3%.
Australia's S&P / ASX 200 also fell 0.55%.
