BANGKOK (news agencies) — Shares fell in Asia on Tuesday after the Nasdaq set a record ahead of a meeting by the Federal Reserve later this week that could set the direction for markets in the new year.
U.S. futures slipped and oil prices reversed early losses.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.2% to 39,364.68, helped by gains in technology shares including SoftBank Group Corp., whose CEO Masayoshi Son joined President-elect Donald Trump in announcing plans Monday by the Japanese technology and telecoms giant to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years.
SoftBank’s Tokyo-listed shares jumped 4.4%.
Chinese markets slid further, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index losing 0.1% to 19,773.60. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.7% to 3,361.49.
“In China, recent disappointing data continues to pressure domestic policymakers to intensify their policy stimulus to invigorate domestic demand,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.3% to 2,456.81 as authorities were pushing to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree of last week. The country’s Constitutional Court began its first meeting Monday on Yoon’s case to determine whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8% to 8,314.00. The Taiex in Taiwan fell 0.1% while the Bangkok’s SET dropped 0.8%.
On Monday, U.S. stock indexes drifted amid mixed trading.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,074.08 and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to a record close of 20,173.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, giving up 0.3% to 43,717.48.
Broadcom leaped 11.2% to help lead the S&P 500 for a second straight day after delivering a profit report last week that beat analysts’ expectations thanks to the wave of enthusiasm about its artificial-intelligence offerings.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its last move on interest rates for the year. The widespread expectation is that it will cut its main rate for a third straight time, as it tries to boost the slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its target of 2%.
The question is how much more it will cut rates next year, and Fed officials will release projections for where they see the federal funds rate ending 2025, along with other economic indicators, once their meeting concludes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will also answer questions in a press conference following the meeting.
Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times so far this year and is heading for one of its best years of the millennium. The economy has held up better than many feared, continuing to grow even after the Fed hiked the federal funds rate to a two-decade high in hopes of grinding down on inflation, which topped 9% two summers ago.
On Wall Street, MicroStrategy jumped as much as 7% during the day as it continues to benefit from the surging price for bitcoin, which set another all-time high on Monday of over $107,000, according to CoinDesk. It was trading at $106,884 early Tuesday.
Bitcoin’s price has catapulted from roughly $44,000 at the start of the year on expectations that Trump will favor digital currencies.
Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.39% on Monday from 4.40% late Friday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 4.24% from 4.25%.
In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up 6 cents to $70.77 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 18 cents to $73.70 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 154.07 Japanese yen from 154.14 yen. The euro fell to $1.0509 from $1.0513.
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