Investing.com - Asian shares fell on Thursday with moves by China's central bank to discuss liquidity conditions with lenders in focus.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.25%, while the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.09% and the S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.05%. In China, a meeting organized by the People's Bank of China to jawbone banks to avoid pushing lending maturity mismatches caught attention for a possible impact on liquidity. But the central bank reiterated it would provide reasonable ample liquidity. The attendees at the meeting were not known, but likely included major state-owned banks.
The PBOC set the yuan central parity rate against the dollar weaker at 6.6602 on Thursday, compared with 6.6420 on Wednesday.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Basic Materials and Technology sectors led shares lower.
As well, investors awaited a speech by Fed Chair Janet Yellen at the end of the week that should provide direction to global equity markets on the scope for the U.S. central bank to raise rates before the end of the year as several of her policymaker colleagues have called for in the past week. According to Investing.com's Fed Rate Monitor Tool, investors are pricing in an 18% chance of a rate hike by September, up from 12% at the start of last week.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.35%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.52%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.81%.