[ad_1] Stocks in Asia were broadly lower on the final trading day of the week after the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at its latest policy meeting. The big mover to the downside was in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index fell 2.39 percent to close at 25,601.92. The mainland China markets, which investors are watching closely as trade tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to weigh on sentiment, ended the trading week lower. The Shanghai composite shed 1.39 percent to close at around 2,598.87 and the Shenzhen composite declined by 0.434 percent to about 1,328.19. The moves in China followed the country's Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index for the month of October coming in at 2.5 percent and 3.3 percent higher, respectively, compared to a year ago. Those numbers were in line with expectations from a Reuters poll. One economist warned that relations between the U.S. and China could get more frosty now that the midterm elections stateside are over. "The upshot is that there will be more noise and volatility on China," TS Lombard's chief U.S. economist, Steve Blitz, said in a note on Thursday, commenting on the post-election environment. Many Democrats, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, are "China hawks," Blitz said. Another market observer said the expected meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during the upcoming G-20 summit is unlikely to yield results. "I wouldn't bank on seeing anything solid on the back of that actually play through," Kerry Craig, a global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday. Still, he predicted the meeting between the two leaders would be "very cordial." [ad_2] Source link
