{"id":73855,"date":"2026-10-30T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T04:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/boj-holds-rates-as-nikkei-plummets-analysts-bullish-on-shell-and-gilead\/73855\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T00:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T04:08:11","slug":"boj-holds-rates-as-nikkei-plummets-analysts-bullish-on-shell-and-gilead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/boj-holds-rates-as-nikkei-plummets-analysts-bullish-on-shell-and-gilead\/73855\/","title":{"rendered":"BoJ Holds Rates as Nikkei Plummets; Analysts Bullish on Shell and Gilead"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Bank of Japan (BoJ) maintained its short-term policy rate at 1.25%<\/strong> in an 8-1 vote, while revising its inflation forecasts upward to reflect persistent price pressures.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Nikkei 225 (<a href=\"\/stock\/JP225\">JP225<\/a>) dropped 2.5%<\/strong> following the decision, driven by a broader technology sector rout and a strengthening Japanese yen.<\/li>\n<li><strong>RBC Capital Markets raised its price target for Shell (<a href=\"\/stock\/SHEL\">SHEL<\/a>) to 4,100p<\/strong>, citing robust quarterly results and favorable energy market positioning.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jefferies increased its price target for Gilead Sciences (<a href=\"\/stock\/GILD\">GILD<\/a>) to $196<\/strong>, following the company&#39;s strong Q3 earnings beat and upgraded fiscal year guidance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Bank of Japan Holds Rates Amid Market Volatility<\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>Bank of Japan<\/strong> concluded its two-day policy meeting on Friday, October 30, 2026, by electing to keep its benchmark interest rate steady at <strong>1.25%<\/strong>. The decision was largely expected by markets, though it featured a lone dissent from board member <strong>Hajime Takata<\/strong>, who advocated for a 25-basis-point hike to <strong>1.5%<\/strong>. In its quarterly outlook report, the central bank noted that underlying inflation has reached its <strong>2% target<\/strong> and is expected to remain around that level, signaling that further rate hikes remain on the table for December or January.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the widely anticipated &quot;hold,&quot; Japanese equities faced significant selling pressure. The <strong>Nikkei 225 (<a href=\"\/stock\/JP225\">JP225<\/a>)<\/strong> extended its losses to <strong>2.5%<\/strong>, as investors reacted to a firming yen and continued weakness in global technology stocks. Meanwhile, <strong>10-year JGB futures<\/strong> gave back early gains following the announcement, trading higher by <strong>0.34 point<\/strong> as the market digested the BoJ&#39;s hawkish tone regarding future borrowing costs.<\/p>\n<h2>Analysts Raise Targets for Energy and Biotech Leaders<\/h2>\n<p>In the corporate sector, major financial institutions issued bullish updates for global leaders in energy and pharmaceuticals. <strong>RBC Capital Markets<\/strong> raised its price target for <strong>Shell (<a href=\"\/stock\/SHEL\">SHEL<\/a>)<\/strong> to <strong>4,100p<\/strong> from 4,000p. The upgrade follows Shell&#39;s recent earnings report, which demonstrated the company&#39;s ability to maintain strong cash flow and shareholder returns despite fluctuating global <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/energy\/crude-oil\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"12\" title=\"Crude oil\">oil prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Simultaneously, <strong>Jefferies<\/strong> significantly boosted its outlook for <strong>Gilead Sciences (<a href=\"\/stock\/GILD\">GILD<\/a>)<\/strong>, raising the price target to <strong>$196<\/strong> from $185. This adjustment comes on the heels of Gilead&#39;s <strong>Q3 2026 earnings report<\/strong>, where the biopharmaceutical giant reported an adjusted EPS of <strong>$2.55<\/strong>, far exceeding the consensus estimate of $1.78. The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance, supported by a <strong>16% year-over-year increase<\/strong> in its base business sales, marking its strongest growth in over a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways The Bank of Japan (BoJ) maintained its short-term policy rate at 1.25% in an 8-1 vote, while revising [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[4025,4945,5139,7727,8326,18430],"class_list":["post-73855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-boj","tag-monetary-policy","tag-nikkei-225","tag-jgb-futures","tag-gilead-sciences-gild","tag-shell-shel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}