TOKYO – Asian stocks were lower on Wednesday as world markets waited cautiously for the US central bank’s latest comments on the economic outlook.
Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 NIK,
gave up early gains and slipped 0.2%, while South Korean Kospi 180721,
withdrew 1%. Australia S & P / ASX 200 XJO,
fell 0.7%. Hang Seng HSI in Hong Kong,
declined 0.2%, while the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP,
decreased by 0.4%. Benchmark indices in STI in Singapore,
Taiwan Y9999,
and Indonesia JAKIDX,
also slipped.
Investors await the latest Federal Reserve economic and interest rate projections, which are expected later in the day. Economists expect Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to try to convince nervous financial markets that the central bank can continue to provide support without fueling higher inflation.
Those concerns have pushed bond yields up recently, slowing demand for equities.
The Fed meeting “has the potential to mitigate or amplify recent market concerns regarding rising bond yields,” said Jingyi Pan, senior market strategist at IG in Singapore.
Wall Street ended a turbulent trading day, with indexes tending to close lower. Losses from banks, industrial stocks and companies dependent on consumer spending, including cruise line operators, outweighed gains from Big Tech stocks and communications services.
The S&P 500 SPX,
fell 0.2% to 3,962.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
0.4% lost to 32,825.95. The Nasdaq COMP,
went against the trend, benefiting from the rise in technology stocks and rising 0.1% to 13,471.57.
Investors on Tuesday weighed in on new economic data showing Americans cutting back on spending last month, partly due to bad weather in much of the country keeping shoppers away from stores, and partly because stimulus payments ran out in December and January.
“We are still working to return to a more normal environment,” said Jason Pride, chief investment officer for private equity at Glenmede. “Given the size of government incentive payments, we’ll see numbers jump around.”
In energy trading, US crude oil benchmark CLJ21
9 cents fell to $ 64.71 a barrel in electronic commerce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 59 cents to $ 64.80 on Tuesday. Brent raw BRNK21,
the international standard lost 15 cents to $ 68.24 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar USDJPY,
rose from 108.99 yen to 109.12 Japanese yen.