A customer places a Japanese 10,000 yen banknote on a checkout counter while making a purchase at an Akidai YK supermarket in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, June 27, 2022.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Friday, with investors assessing November pay and household spending out from Japan.
Real household spending in Japan fell 0.4% year on year in November, a softer fall compared to the 0.6% decline expected by a Reuters poll of economists. The fall was also less than the 1.3% decline seen in October.
The average real income per household stood at 514,409 yen ($3,252.98) in November, up 0.7% from the previous year.
People’s Bank of China announced it it would suspend treasury bond purchases temporarily, Reuters reported. This was due to the bonds being in short supply, with the PBOC adding it would resume bond buying depending on supply and demand in the government bond market.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.44% after the announcement, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was marginally below the flatline
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.71%, with the broad-based Topix seeing a smaller loss of 0.54%.
South Korea’s Kospi reversed earlier gains, falling 0.41%, and the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.93%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also slipped 0.55%, after being in positive territory earlier in the session.
Overnight in the U.S., markets were closed on Thursday due to the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter, but traders will assess labor data on Friday stateside, with nonfarm payroll numbers for December.
Economists expect the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday morning to report a gain of 155,000 in nonfarm payrolls, a step down from the surprising 227,000 increase in November but about in keeping with the four-month average. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold steady at 4.2%.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox contributed to this report.
