[MARKET UPDATE] Asia-Pac stocks are mostly lower following further tech selling owing to weak earnings from Amazon and Intel, while participants digest a slew of data at month-end and await the BoJ

Asia-Pac stocks are mostly lower following further tech selling owing to weak earnings from Amazon and Intel, while participants digest a slew of data at month-end and await the BoJ.

Cross-asset session wraps of this kind describe the standard pattern for a month-end Asia session sitting ahead of a BoJ decision: US mega-cap earnings disappointments in the prior session transmit directly into the regional tech complex, with semiconductor names typically bearing the brunt given their weight in Korean and Taiwanese indices and the read-across from US chip guidance. The month-end element adds a mechanical layer, since rebalancing flows and data congestion have historically produced choppy, conviction-light trade rather than directional moves. The dominant event risk is the BoJ itself; into recent meetings the established sequence has been muted pre-decision ranges in JGBs and the yen, with the market sensitive less to the policy outcome than to any signalling on the pace of normalisation, and sharp yen moves on surprises transmitting into regional equities via exporter earnings expectations. The distinction worth drawing is between a risk-off session driven by earnings, which tends to fade if the next US session stabilises, and one compounded by a BoJ surprise, which reprices the rate path and carries through. Follow-ons are the BoJ statement and press conference, the yield and yen reaction at the front of the curve, and whether the data slate alters anything ahead of it.