Asian stocks open mostly mixed as the week wraps up

Asian stocks opened the last session of the week mixed but mostly positive, as the Japanese, New Zealand, and Australian stocks rose in addition to Hong Kong's Hang Seng and the South Korean Kospi, while Chinese stocks fell, after the several major central banks rate decisions, amid anticipation for the latest round of the US-China trade talks.

Last month, the People's Bank of China cut its interest rate on the 1-year loans to 4.2% from 4.25% and kept the interest rates for 5 years unchanged at 4.85%, while the BOJ maintained the rates at minus 0.10%, and cut its debt purchases today, leading the Japanese bond yields to rise, especially the 10-year bonds, which is in the targeted area of plus or minus 0.2%.

During this week, the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates today by 25 basis points to between 1.75% and 2.00%, which is the second rate cut since 2008, to protect the US economic growth in line with forecasts, the bank also revealed its forecasts for growth, inflation, unemployment, and the future of the US interest rates for the 3 three years.

South China Morning Post addressed the warnings of President Trump on Washington readiness to escalate the trade war if China didn't reach a deal with the US, after a new round of the trade talks on deputy-level in preparation for the high-level talks scheduled in the first of this month.

Yesterday, US Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, stated that the trade talks are more complicated than the soybeans issue, noting that China purchases of more US agricultural goods are not sufficient to seal a trade deal with the US, which came after US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said that the Chinese delegation will visit the US next week to check the quality of US products.

Larry Kudlow, the White House economic adviser said on Wednesday that President Trump is scheduled to meet with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe next week to finalize the US-Japan trade deal, to be signed at the UN General Assembly by the end of the month. Whilst, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi later stressed the importance of ensuring that Washington does not impose more tariffs on Japanese cars before signing any trade agreement between the two countries.

Yesterday, we followed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development trimmed its global growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020 to 2.9% from 3.2% in its previous forecast and to 3.0% from 3.4% for 2020, with its US economic growth forecast down to 2.4% from 2.8%, and also warned form the uncertainty in Europe, and lowered its forecast for Europe's growth to 1.1% from 1.2%, and lowered its forecast for Chinese growth in 2019 to 6.1% from 6.2% and 5.7% from 6.0% in 2020, while its forecast for Japan to 1.0% from 0.7% in 2019 and 0.6% for 2020.

The Japanese stocks rose today, as Topix rose by 0.32% or 5.16 points to 1,620.82 points, and Nikkei 225 rose by 0.44% or 97.97 points to 22,142.42.

While the Chinese stocks fell, as the CSI 300 fell by 0.01% or 0.29 points to 3,924.12, and the Shanghai Composite fell by 0.04% or 1.25 points to 2,998.03.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose by 0.2% or 4.10 points to 26,473.05, while the South Korean Kospi rose by 0.28% or 5.91 points to 2,086.26.

To New Zealand's NZX 50, which rose by 0.33% or 35.66 points to 10,836.71, and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 rose by 0.62% or 41.63point to 6,759.10.