Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday in a busy session across markets with China down on disappointing official PMI figures and Japan off as the Bank of Japan was predictably steady on stimulus efforts and the economic outlook.
Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.27% after the Bank of Japan on Tuesday held its asset purchases at ¥80 trillion annually as expected, with the short-term interest rate maintained at 0.1%.
The BoJ also kept its core inflation forecast at 1.8% for FY2019/20, unchanged from July as it reiterated its view on the economy that risks are balanced. Earlier in Japan, household spending for September rose 0.4% on month, beating the 0.1% gain seen, and at a 0.3% decline on year, missing the 0.7% gain expected. As well, industrial production fell 1.1% on month provisionally, less than the 1.5% decline seen. The unemployment rate in Japan was steady at 2.8%.
Nintendo on Monday announced it was nearly doubling its full-year profit forecast to 120 billion yen ($1.06 billion) from 65 billion yen. The consumer electronics company also reported quarterly profit of 23.7 billion yen, topping the 19 billion yen expected, Reuters said. Nintendo shares rose 6.25%,
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.01%. In Australia, private sector credit rose 0.3% for September, compared with a 0.5% gain seen on month.
In Greater China, the Shanghai Composite slid 0.25% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.13%. China reported the official manufacturing PMI for October at 51.6, compared with a level of 52 expected, and its non-manufacturing survey at 54.3, after 55.4 in the previous month.
Glencore (LON:GLEN) announced in a filing that it would be withdrawing the listing of its shares on the Hong Kong Exchange. The withdrawal is expected to come into effect on Jan. 31, 2018, the company said. Shares of the company traded in Hong Kong were up 0.4%.
Overnight, U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday as gains in tech stocks were offset by a slump in financials following a report suggesting that the House is considering a plan that would gradually lower the U.S. corporate tax rate.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher at 23,348.74. The S&P 500 closed 0.32% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6698.96, down 0.03%.
In what was quiet day on calendar for top-tier corporate earnings, investors mulled over a Bloomberg report suggesting that the U.S. House of Representatives was discussing a gradual tax cut that that would lower the corporate tax rate to 20% in 2022.
On the economic data front, the trend of stuttering inflation continued while consumer spending grew at its fastest rate since August 2009.
The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 1.3% in the 12 months through September.
That was in-line with expectations but well below the Fed’s 2% target, fueling expectations that the trend of subdued inflation will keep interest rates lower for longer.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, jumped 1% last month, the Commerce Department said on Monday.
The duo of reports come ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting which gets underway on Tuesday.
A surge in the tech stocks helped limit losses in the broader market as sentiment on tech remained elevated following a slew of better-than-expected earnings from Amazon (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:NASDAQ:GOOGL) last week.