Asia-Pacific markets were largely down on Tuesday following the Wall Street losses, and investors were holding back before the U.S. Federal Reserve decision on December 10 stateside.
The central bank is projected to cut rates by 25 basis points at its final meeting of the year, bringing the Federal Funds rate to 3.5-3.75 percent. Therefore, the analysts indicated that the Fed will then be more data-dependent.
Chief Investment Officer at Integrated Partners, Stephen Kolano, said that “I would not be surprised for Jerome Powell to be like, ‘We’ve cut, and now we’re in a place where we really need to watch the data,’ and he’ll stop just short of being hawkish, because we have seen the softness in the labor market.”
The Nikkei 225 improved 0.16 percent during a volatile trading session, while the broad-based Topix remained flat. The Tech gains reduced the losses of the Nikkei, with Disco Corp and Konica Minolta increasing by 5.42 percent and 4.91 percent, respectively.
Kospi of South Korea went down by 0.31 percent, although the small-cap Kosdaq rose by 0.2 percent. The S&P/ASX 200 of Australia fell by 0.32 percent after the central bank of the country maintained its interest rates at 3.6 percent as anticipated.
In a statement, after the rate decision, the Reserve Bank of Australia stated that “The recent data suggest the risks to inflation have tilted to the upside, but it will take a little longer to assess the persistence of inflationary pressures.”
However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped by 0.84 percent, and the CSI 300 mainland China index fell by 0.14 percent.
U.S. stock futures were marginally higher on Monday night, supported by President Donald Trump’s sanctioning of Nvidia H200 chip sales to China under an arrangement in which the U.S. government will receive a substantial amount of the cut.
After-hours trading, Nvidia rose 2.2 percent after a Truth Social posting Monday evening that the chipmaking giant could deliver its H200 chip to any of its “approved customers” in China and elsewhere on the condition that a quarter of the sales will be sent back to the U.S government.
In the U.S, the S&P 500 was down 0.35 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.14 percent overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen by 215.67 points or 0.45 percent.
