Asian shares fall after Alphabet earnings miss forecasts

Asian stock markets saw a decline following Alphabet's earnings report, which failed to meet expectations. The South Korean Kospi index dropped by 2.6% after a previous surge of nearly 7%. In Hong Kong, MSCI's broad Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan fell by 0.7%, while Japan's Nikkei index saw a slight increase of 0.3%. In mainland China, blue chips experienced a decline of 0.9%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.2%.

The primary reason behind Alphabet's decline is attributed to the impact of the AI boom on its traditional ad revenue generation. Both Alphabet and Microsoft confirmed that their AI-related revenue streams are still robust, partially due to growth in data centers and cloud services. SK Hynix shares rose by 1.3% following a strong earnings report on Thursday.

Following the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates steady, investors are now focusing on the US Personal Consumption Expenditures data for September, which is expected to show a 0.3% monthly increase in the core inflation measure. Despite comments from Fed committee member Kevin Warsh indicating a possible rate hike in December, markets are still anticipating a rate increase by then.

The dissenting votes to raise rates during today's meeting suggest the Fed's focus is more on when rather than whether they will hike again, potentially keeping yields range-bound unless there's a clear signal for more aggressive tightening or a shift towards cuts. The Bank of Canada hiked interest rates for the first time in over three years on Wednesday, with further increases expected.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is expected to maintain its current interest rates later on Thursday.