Friday Morning Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories Moving Markets

The markets were mixed in Asia on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei closed the day up 1.45 percent after the nation’s parliament confirmed Haruhiko Kuroda, a monetary policy bull, as the new governor of the central bank. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.38 percent as concerns about the mainland economy and Europe outweighed optimism from the United States. The S&P/ASX 200 index increased 1.75 percent, led by financials, a sharp contrast to yesterday’s 1.2 percent decline.

The markets were posting broad losses in Europe as New York woke up and headed to work. Germany’s DAX was off 0.11 percent, London’s FTSE 100 was off 0.53 percent, and the STOXX 50 index was off 0.51 percent.

U.S. futures at 8:20 a.m.: DJIA: +0.02%, S&P 500: +0.03%, NASDAQ: +0.16%.

Here are three stories to keep an eye on:

1) There’s new leadership at the Bank of Japan. Haruhiko Kuroda and two new deputies, picked by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, were confirmed by the nation’s Parliament on Friday, setting the stage for what many hope will be a new era of growth. Japan has faced two decades of stagflation, and Kuroda is expected to use aggressive monetary policy to stimulate the economy out of its rut. Expectations are high, and many analysts have suggested that he may even adopt non-conventional policies alongside traditional monetary measures.

The yen weakened slightly to trade at 96.120 to the dollar.