Investing.com - Asian shares were mixed on Friday with Tokyo up as the Bank of Japan held steady on policy and data sets pointed to a dour outlook.
The Nikkei 225 gained 0.18%, while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.30% and the S&P/ASX 200 eased 1.28%.
The BoJ decided by an 8 to 1 vote to leave the bank's policy target unchanged, as largely expected, indicating policymakers are confident that the economy will rebound in the coming months and that the underlying trend of prices continues to rise.
In the semi-annual Outlook Report due at 0600 GMT, the BoJ is likely to lower its economic forecasts for this fiscal year and may also push back the estimated timing of achieving its 2% inflation target again to "around fiscal 2016" from "around the first half of fiscal 2016."
The most likely scenario is the board will trim its GDP forecast. So far, the BoJ's assessment of the two main drivers of inflation has been unchanged: longer-term inflation expectations are rising and the negative output gap is unlikely to hurt the underlying price trend, which is backed by tight labor supply, because the GDP slump in April-June was mainly caused by an export drop.
Earlier in Japan, September household spending plunged 1.3% month-on-month, well below the 0.3% gain seen, national core CPI eased 0.1%, less than the 0.2% drop expected, and unemployment stayed steady at 3.4% as expected.
Consumer spending remains lackluster despite a gradual pickup in nominal wages and possibly due to the uncertainty over global growth and stock markets.
Expectations of further eased have ebbed and waned for another round of aggressive monetary easing to boost prices more than two years into a massive stimulus program of ¥80 trillion.
In Australia comes housing credit for September rose 0.8%, a faster pace that the 0.5% gain in August, while housing credit was up 0.6%, unchanged from the previous month. Producer prices gained 0.9% in the third quarter.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.01% to 97.35.
Overnight, the dollar pushed lower against the other major currencies on Thursday, after the release of disappointing U.S. data dampened optimism over the strength of the economy.
The U.S. National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index dropped 2.3% last month, disappointing expectations for a gain of 1.0%. Pending home sales in August fell by 1.4%, whose figure was revised from a previously reported drop of 1.4%.
The data came after the Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 1.5% in the three months to September, missing expectations for growth of 1.6%. The U.S. economy grew 3.9% in the previous quarter.
Separately, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 24 increased by 1,000 to 260,000 from the previous week’s total of 259,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 4,000 to 263,000.
The dollar had strengthened broadly after Wednesday’s Federal Reserve statement said that officials might make a decision to raise interest rates at their December meeting.
The central bank kept rates on hold at its September meeting amid fears that a China-led slowdown in global growth could affect the U.S. economy.
Overnight, U.S. stocks fell mildly on Thursday erasing some of their gains from Wednesday's surge, following the release of soft GDP for the third quarter data earlier in the session.
After rallying late in Wednesday's session following hawkish comments by the Federal Reserve on a potential December interest rate hike, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite index inched down on Thursday.
The Dow lost 23.72 or 0.13% to 17,755.80 in Thursday's session, one day after surging more than 200 points. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, dipped 21.42 or 0.42% to close at 5,074.27. The major indices are still on pace for a record month with one trading day left in October.