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Asian markets had a wild start to the week, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index tumbling nearly 5% while Chinese markets soared on news of fresh stimulus for the faltering economy.
Japanese shares sank after the ruling Liberal Democrats chose former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba to succeed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is due to step down on Tuesday.
Ishiba has expressed support for the Bank of Japan's moves to raise interest rates from their near-zero level. He also backs other policies, such as possibly raising corporate taxes, that are seen as less market friendly than his chief rival for the top job, Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, who he beat in a run-off vote late Friday.
The Nikkei was trading down 4.7% at 37,956.32 by midday Monday.
The dollar fell from over 146 yen to under 143 yen after the ruling party’s vote ended late Friday. By mid-Monday, it was trading at 142.49 yen, up from 142.29.
Exporters’ shares plunged, since a stronger yen is a disadvantage for Japanese companies that make a large share of their sales and profits overseas.
Toyota Motor Corp. dropped 3.5%. Honda Motor Co.'s shares fell 4.1% and Nissan Motor Co.'s declined 5.8%.
Ishiba has said he backs Kishida's “new capitalism” policies, which ostensibly would foster more equal distribution of national wealth. But sharply rising prices have undermined progress toward encouraging consumers to spend more.
Meanwhile, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 3.3% to 21,321.97, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index up 8.6%. The Shanghai Composite index surged 5.7% to 3,263.59.
The rallies were auspiciously timed, coming on the eve of a week-long national holiday marking 75 years of communist rule in China. Markets in mainland China will be closed Tuesday through Oct. 7.
China is moving forward with measures announced last week to support the property industry and revive languishing financial markets. The central bank announced on Sunday that it would direct banks to cut mortgage rates for existing home loans by Oct. 31. Meanwhile, the major southern city of Guangzhou lifted all home purchase restrictions over the weekend, while both Shanghai and Shenzhen revealed plans to ease key buying curbs.
The effort to wrest the housing market out of a prolonged downturn comes as the economy shows signs of slowing further. China’s manufacturing activity in September contracted for a fifth consecutive month, as the official purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.8, remaining below the 50 line that separates expansion from contraction, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released on Monday.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.7% to 8,273.10. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.9% to 2,627.13.
On Friday, the S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% from its all-time high to 5,738.17. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to 42,313.00, setting its own record, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.4% to 18,119.59.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market after a report showed inflation slowed in August by a bit more than economists expected. It echoed similar numbers from earlier in the month about inflation, but Friday’s report has resonance because it’s the measure that officials at the Federal Reserve prefer to use.
The Fed kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high for more than a year, in hopes of slowing the economy enough to drive inflation toward its 2% target. Now that inflation has eased substantially from its peak two summers ago, the Fed has begun cutting rates to ease conditions for the slowing job market and prevent a recession.
The risk of a downturn remains and U.S. employers have slowed their hiring. A inflation report on Friday showed growth in U.S. consumer spending in August fell shy of economists’ expectations.
In other dealings Monday, benchmark U.S. crude oil added 40 cents to $68.58 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 45 cents at $71.99 per barrel.
The euro was trading at $1.1158, down from $1.1163.
