Japan Stocks Extend Winning Streak While Asia, Europe Mostly Lower

Asian stocks were mostly lower on Thursday with the notable exception of Japan's Nikkei index which extended its winning streak to 3 days and gained 1.20 percent. Investors were bullish on Japanese stocks following reports the country's central bank is considering a negative rate loan program. According to a report by

Bloomberg

, the Bank of Japan "may consider helping banks lend by offering a negative rate on some loans." On the other hand, the Japanese yen lost 1.11 percent against the U.S. dollar - the currency's steepest lost in 7 weeks.

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China's Shanghai index gained 0.22 percent but remained below the 3,000-level. In fact, Chinese stocks posted their largest weekly loss in 3 months, according to

Fox Business News. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.72 percent, Australia's ASX index lost 0.70 percent, Taiwan's TSEC index lost 0.38 percent and India's Mumbai Sensex index lost 0.16 percent. European equities were mostly lower with more than 4 hours remaining in their trading session one day after the European Central's Bank

warned

that the region is heading back towards deflation and interest rates will remain negative "for an extended period of time." The UK's FTSE index was among the hardest hit in Europe and was lower by 0.77 percent. Germany's DAX index was lower by 0.30 percent, following by a 0.09 percent decline in France's CAC index. Oil was trading higher ahead of the U.S. trading session with Brent and U.S. crude trading near $44.50 and $43.20 levels, respectively.

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