Asia markets largely poised for fall after Fed minutes show no indication of rate cuts
Asia-Pacific markets are set to fall after minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's Oct. 31 meeting revealed that policy officials maintained that monetary policy had to be restrictive and had little appetite for rate cuts.
"In discussing the policy outlook, participants continued to judge that it was critical that the stance of monetary policy be kept sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to the Committee's 2 percent objective over time," the minutes said. The federal funds rate currently stands at 5.25%-5.5%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped marginally in early trade.
Japan's Nikkei 225 is also set to extend its losses for a third straight day, with the futures contract in Chicago at 33,175 and its counterpart in Osaka at 33,200 against the index's last close of 33,354.14.
Futures for Hong Kong's Hang Seng index stood at 17,702 following a volatile trading session on Tuesday, pointing to a weaker open compared with the HSI's close of 17,733.89.
In the U.S., all three major indexes lost ground following the Fed announcement, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite snapping a string of five consecutive winning days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.18%, while the S&P dipped 0.2%. The tech heavy Nasdaq fell 0.59%, a day after leading a tech fueled rally on Wall Street.
— CNBC's Hakyung Kim and Brian Evans contributed to this report.
