Stocks in Asia were lower overnight, with the Nikkei (^N225) slipping 0.5% on the day in Japan, after a run of 4 consecutive gains, after Sanae Takaichi’s election as LDP leader this week.
The 10-year Japanese government bond yield (+1.4bps) reached a post-2008 high of 1.69%, whilst the yen (-0.30%) weakened to 152.36 per dollar, its lowest level since February.
That came as data showed wage growth was softer than expected in August, with nominal wages up 1.5% year-on-year in August (compared to 2.7% expected). In real terms, wage growth remains negative as it has throughout 2025, at -1.4% (verses -0.5% expected).
The Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.6% in Hong Kong and the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) and Kospi (^KS11) were still closed for holidays.
Elsewhere, the main surprise has come from New Zealand overnight, where the Reserve Bank of New Zealand delivered a surprise 50bp cut, larger than the 25bp move expected, which takes their Official Cash rate down to 2.5%.
That has led to a depreciation in the New Zealand dollar, which has weakened 0.96% against the US greenback overnight, making it the worst-performing G10 currency.
The statement said that the committee “remains open to further reductions”, and New Zealand’s 10yr yield (-4.6bps) has fallen to a 12-month low in response.
Across the pond on Wall Street, US equities fell back after a run of 7 consecutive gains. In part, that was driven by a decline for Oracle (-2.52%), after a report from The Information said that their profit margins for cloud computing were lower than analysts’ estimates. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) was 0.7% lower. The Dow Jones (^DJI) lost 0.2%.
The outperformers were among the more defensive sectors, with consumer staples (+0.86%) and utilities (+0.42%) both advancing.
AloJapan.com