Investors Look Ahead to Fed Decision, Japan Data Impact on BOJ

Investors are looking ahead to the Federal Reserve decision happening later this week. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to push through another quarter-point interest-rate cut this week. That is despite growing unease among fellow policymakers that inflation remains too high. In Asia-Pacific, the Reserve Bank of Australia's rate decision and a raft of Chinese data are the key events in the week ahead. We heard from Mark Matthews, Head of Asia Research at Julius Baer. He spoke to Bloomberg's Shery Ahn and Avril Hong. Plus - in Japan, a slew of economic data was released. In Tokyo, labor cash earnings were released. Stronger wage gains in October bolstered the case for the Bank of Japan to deliver a 25-basis-point rate hike at its Dec. 18–19 meeting. However, Japan's economy shrank in the three months through September, the government confirmed in a revised report, giving further justification for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's stimulus package announced last month. For more on what the latest Japan data means for the BoJ, we heard from Bloomberg's Brian Fowler. He spoke to Bloomberg's Shery Ahn and Avril Hong. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.