TSX:4506 26 September 2025 - 9 December 2025

Asian markets were mostly steady on Thursday as investors navigated mixed signals from central banks and awaited key U.S. data releases. Japan’s Nikkei 225 edged up 0.3% to 45,755, recovering from early losses abcnews.go.com. Optimism in Tokyo was underpinned by hopes that the Bank of Japan would maintain its ultra-easy policy: fresh data showed Tokyo consumer inflation at 2.5% in September, below forecasts abcnews.go.com. While still above the BoJ’s 2% target, the cooler-than-expected price rise eased pressure for immediate tightening. This spurred bets that the BoJ will hold off on rate hikes for now, weakening the yen and boosting exporter stocks investing.com investing.com. Japanese indexes remain near multi-decade highs on this dovish outlook investing.com. Chinese and Hong Kong shares outperformed earlier in the week, extending a remarkable rally in tech names. By Thursday, Chinese tech stocks had notched an eighth straight week of gains, a record streak fueled by optimism around artificial intelligence and supportive policies reuters.com. The Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen CSI 300 were flat to slightly up on the day abcnews.go.com, even as global sentiment turned subdued. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed almost unchanged at 26,485 abcnews.go.com, with profit-taking in some tech leaders offsetting continued strength in