ECB member announces interest rate cut

European Central Bank (ECB) Board Member Isabel Schnabel warned against the expectation of consecutive interest rate cuts in June and July. Signals of weakness in the Chinese economy, especially on the consumption front, pulled Asian stocks down this morning. The MSCI Asia Pacific index fell for the first time in six trading days, while the China, Australia and South Korea indexes led the way in decline. Asian declines followed the losses in American indexes. On Thursday, the Dow Jones index exceeded the historical 40,000 level for a while, but finished the day with a slight loss. US futures are flat. The Bloomberg Dollar Index is up 0.2 percent at 1,247 points. The Japanese yen leads the losses against the dollar in developed country currencies. The yen weakened 0.3 percent against the dollar as the Bank of Japan did not change the amount of bond purchases. In Asian transactions, the US 10-year bond yield did not change much and remained at 4.37 percent.