BOJ decision, China PMI, Samsung earnings


Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | getty images

Asia-Pacific markets slipped on Thursday as investors kept an eye on the Bank of Japan's rate decision as well as key business activity data from China.

The BOJ kept its benchmark policy rate at 0.25%, unchanged from the previous meeting. The bank issued a two-line statement stating only the decision, with no indication of the timing of the next rate hike.

In China, the country's manufacturing purchasing managers' index reached expansion territory for the first time since April, with the National Bureau of Statistics revealing that the manufacturing PMI came in at 50.1.

That beat forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists, who had expected the manufacturing PMI to come in at 49.9, a softer contraction than last month's 49.8.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 It was 0.41% lower after the BOJ's decision, while broader-based topics slipped 0.47%.

South Korean Kospi It was 0.71% lower, leading losses in Asia, but the small-cap Kosdaq was up 0.39%.

Investors are weighing third-quarter earnings from heavyweight Samsung Electronics, which reported smaller profit than the previous quarter. Most notably, Samsung's semiconductor unit reported an operating profit of 3.86 trillion won (about $2.8 billion) in the third quarter, down 40% from the previous quarter.

Australian S&P/ASX 200 0.3% decline

In contrast, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 0.66%, while mainland China's CSI 300 was also 0.54% higher.

US stocks fell overnight as investors digested a slew of earnings reports and looked to more results from megacap technology companies.

Alphabet beat analysts' expectations as the company saw strong quarterly revenue growth from its cloud business. Shares jumped nearly 3%. However, shares of chip maker AMD fell more than 10% as its fourth-quarter revenue guidance failed to impress investors.

Tech giants Apple and Amazon are due on Thursday, following results from Meta Platform and Microsoft.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.56% after hitting a new record high earlier. The S&P 500 slipped 0.33%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.22% to 42,141.54.

— CNBC's Hakyung Kim and Piya Singh contributed to this report.

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