View of the central business district skyline at sunset in Beijing, China.
Sheng Peng | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets are set to fall ahead of China’s announcement for its one-year and five-year loan prime rates on Monday.
The one-year and five-year LPR currently stands at 3.55% and 4.2% respectively. Reuters reported that in a poll of 35 market watchers, all participants predicted cuts to both rates, after China’s central bank unexpectedly lowered the medium-term lending facility rate last week.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 17,794, pointing to a weaker open compared with its Friday close of 17,950.85. That was the first time the index went below the 18,000 mark this year and the lowest it has been since November 2022.
In Australia, futures for the S&P/ASX 200 also point to a lower open, at 7,070 compared with its last close of 7,148.1.
In contrast, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is set to rise after four days of losses last week, with the futures contract in Chicago at 31,525 and its counterpart in Osaka at 31,490 against the index’s last close of 31,450.76.
On Friday in the U.S., the three major indexes ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.07%. However, the S&P 500 was lower by 0.01%, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%.
Both the S&P and Nasdaq recorded their third straight week of losses, something that has not happened since February for the S&P, and December for the Nasdaq.
— CNBC’s Sarah Min and Hakyung Kim contributed to this report