Nikkei futures pointed to a higher open for the Japanese market, after the benchmark index finished at 19,310.52 in the previous session; Chicago futures traded at 19,380 and Osaka futures were at 19,370.
In Australia, SPI futures traded at 5,945, a touch lower than the ASX 200‘s last finish at 5,956.52. The Reserve Bank of Australia‘s (RBA) monetary policy decision will be in focus today, with most analysts expecting them to stay on hold.
“There’s currently no monetary policy bias built into the RBA futures curve for this year, with less than 2 basis points of easing “priced in” by December, an understandable less than 10 percent chance of a cut,” said David de Garis, director of economics at the National Australia Bank.
Bank earnings are also in focus today.
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), one of the country’s so-called Big Four banks, reported 2017 half year results before market open. ANZ said its cash profit for rose 23 percent to 3.41 billion Australian dollars ($2.57 billion) in the six months ended March 31, 2017.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s top lender DBS Group reported first quarter net interest income came in nearly flat at 1.831 billion Singapore dollars ($1.31 billion), down slightly from S$1.833 billion a year ago.
