{"id":69634,"date":"2025-03-20T18:17:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T07:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vni.com\/blog\/?p=69634"},"modified":"2025-08-06T15:12:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:12:02","slug":"thursday-20th-march-2025-asia-pacific-markets-mixed-as-china-holds-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/thursday-20th-march-2025-asia-pacific-markets-mixed-as-china-holds-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday 20th March 2025: Asia-Pacific Markets Mixed as China Holds Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.34%, Shanghai Composite down 0.09%, Hang Seng down 1.21% ASX up 1.15%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $3059.35 (0.60%), Silver at $34.5 (0.68%), Brent Oil at $71.35 (0.5%), WTI Oil at $67.51 (0.54%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.238, UK 10-year yield at 4.6305, Germany 10-year yield at 2.7980<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(USD) Federal Funds Rate 4.5%&nbsp; to 4.5% expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Asia-Pacific markets showed mixed results Thursday as China\u2019s central bank held interest rates steady, following the U.S. Federal Reserve\u2019s decision to keep benchmark rates unchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 rose 1.02%, while South Korea\u2019s Kospi gained 0.28%, and the small-cap Kosdaq climbed 0.55%. However, Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Index dropped 1.36%, and mainland China\u2019s CSI 300 slipped 0.17% after Beijing opted to keep its key lending rates unchanged to balance economic growth and currency stability. The People\u2019s Bank of China maintained the 1-year loan prime rate at 3.1% and the 5-year LPR at 3.6%, unchanged since a cut in October. Japan\u2019s markets were closed for a holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Federal Reserve held interest rates at 4.25%\u20134.5% on Wednesday while signaling two potential rate cuts later this year. Their economic outlook included rising inflation and slower growth. Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged recession concerns but downplayed the likelihood of a severe downturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. stock futures remained stable after the major indexes rallied in response to the Fed\u2019s outlook. The three key indexes closed higher, with the S&amp;P 500 rebounding from correction territory. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 383.32 points (0.92%) to 41,964.63. The S&amp;P 500 gained 1.08% to end at 5,675.29, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.41% to 17,750.79.<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Upcoming Events:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>12:00 PM GMT &#8211; GBP Official bank Rate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: Asia-Pacific markets showed mixed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":71231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamental-analysis","category-market-analysis","category-recent-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69639,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69634\/revisions\/69639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets-vnk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}