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Asian stock markets:
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Nikkei up 0.2% in slow trade, U.S. stock futures slip
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BOJ meeting bookmarks a busy week of data
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Analysts look for tech earnings to beat the Street
By Wayne Cole SYDNEY, April 24 (Reuters) - Asian shares were mostly lower on Monday in a week packed with economic data and central bank meetings, along with earnings from the tech giants that have kept the S&P 500 afloat so far this year. Market action was sluggish in the wake of Friday's surprisingly strong surveys of business activity which reinforced the case for higher interest rates. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.4%, while Japan's Nikkei nudged up 0.2%. Chinese blue chips fell 0.4%. Over in Australia, there was some weakness in mining stocks after Chile moved to boost state control over its lithium industry, which has the world's largest reserves of the battery metal.
EUROSTOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures were
both little changed. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures eased 0.3% ahead of a busy week of earnings.
Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp alone have
accounted for nearly half of the S&P 500's gains through March,
so there is much riding on their outlooks.
"We believe stalwarts Microsoft, Amazon and Google should
all deliver cloud results that meet and likely exceed Street 1Q
expectations this week despite recent noise in the market," said
analysts at Wedbush Securities.
"We also believe a major narrative of tech earnings season
will be the AI arms race and each Big Tech player updating
investors on their own AI ambitions/monetization strategy as
Redmond battles Google and other tech stalwarts for the AI
trophy case."
The U.S. House of Representatives could this week vote on a
Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for
spending cuts. Weak tax receipts mean the government could run
out of money earlier than expected, and the risk of default has
seen a rise in U.S. credit default swaps.
Figures on U.S. wages and economic growth due this week will
likely reinforce the case for further tightening. The Atlanta
Fed's influential GDP Now tracker has the U.S economy growing
an annualised 2.5% in the first quarter, only a shade slower
than the previous quarter.
BOJ GETS A NEW BOSS Markets are pricing in an 86% chance the Federal Reserve will hike rates by a quarter point at its meeting in the first week of May, and fully expect a similar hike from the European Central Bank with some risk of a half-point move. Central banks in Canada and Sweden meet this week, but most attention will be on the Bank of Japan for the first meeting chaired by its new governor, Kazuo Ueda. Ueda on Monday said policy easing had to be continued since inflation was still under 2% in trend terms. Only three out of 27 economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ to start to scale-back its yield curve control policy (YCC) this soon, but there are reports the central bank is considering conducting a comprehensive review of the impact of its easing. "Media background suggests don't expect tweaks to YCC, but its clear the writing is on the wall and the risk is of more substantive change at the next meeting," said Tapas Strickland, head of market economics at NAB. In contrast, the head of Belgium's central bank warned in an FT article on Monday that investors are underestimating how high eurozone borrowing costs will rise. The divergence in policy between Japan and the rest of the developed world has seen the yen weaken steadily in the last few weeks, with the euro in particular hitting a six-month high. The single currency was firm at 147.56 yen on Monday , while the dollar held at 134.35 . The euro held at $1.0980 , within sight of its recent one-year peak of $1.1075. A higher dollar and bond yields have been a burden for gold, which shed 1.2% last week and was last lying at $1,979 an ounce . Chicago wheat gained almost 1% after Russia threatened to terminate a grain deal allowing Ukrainian exports, raising concerns over world supplies. Oil prices also lost ground last week, though planned production cuts from OPEC offer some support. Brent eased 66 cents on Monday to $81.00 a barrel, while U.S. crude fell 67 cents to $77.20 per barrel. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Asia stock markets Asia-Pacific valuations US tech earnings ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Lincoln Feast.)
Messaging: wayne.cole.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))