Nikkei Tumbles On Weaker PMI, VW Scandal; SoftBank Slides On Alibaba

Increasingly, economists bet that the Bank of Japan will boost its quantitative easing at its next meeting in October.

Exporters are mostly lower.

Japan’s top automaker Toyota fell 1.43 percent to 7,130 yen, while Mazda plunged 7.05 percent to 1,831 yen and Mitsubishi was down 4.58 percent to 937 yen.

With the price of precious metal up 0.6 percent overnight, Newcrest Mining (NCM-AU) and Evolution Mining (EVN-AU) advanced more than 2 percent each.

Mizuho Financial (8411.T-JP) led losses within the banking sector with a 2.2 percent slump, while Nomura Holdings (8604.T-JP), which said it could incur 34.5 billion yen ($287 million) loss in the second quarter in relation to a settlement with Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS-IT), lost 3.2 percent.

The benchmark Australian S&P/ASX 200 index jumped 0.93% to 5,044.50 points in Sydney, with the heavily-weighted “big four” banks supporting the index, as well as resource stocks.

Core inflation, which excludes the volatile costs of food, was down 0.1 percent on year in August – matching expectations following the flat reading in the previous month.

Investors also focused on US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s speech due later in the day, hoping to get additional clues on when the central bank plans to raise interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 78.57 points or 0.5 percent to close at 16,201.32, after plunging more than 250 points earlier in the session.

Mazda was down a whopping 7% at one point and closing down 6.8% for the day.

Ahead of the decision, the PSE Composite Index (.PSI) fell 0.9 percent to its lowest level since September 8.

The index for new orders fell to a preliminary 52.0 from 53.4 in August in a sign that domestic consumption also could be losing some momentum.

USA crude oil futures ended higher on Thursday, rebounding from a 4 percent tumble yesterday, after fluctuating for much of the day as the dollar weakened against a basket of some major currencies and the market expecting a drop in US production with the steep fall in crude prices. The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for January delivery rose 90 yuan to finish at 11,500 yuan ($1,802.00) per tonne.