Asian equites mixed as investors awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting to gauge the pace of monetary tightening.
Shares in Mainland China, Hong Kong and South Korea remained higher while Thailand and Japan dipped.
Contracts on the S&P 500 were little changed and the Nasdaq 100 rose slightly.
Treasuries were little changed, while the dollar rebounded from a two-day drop.
Traders are cutting Fed rate-hike bets amid signs of softer US growth. Fed Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic, a dovish policymaker, urged his colleagues to proceed with care.
“Our central scenario remains that a recession can be avoided and that geopolitical risks will moderate over the course of the year, allowing equities to move higher,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management as reported by Bloomberg.
“But recent market falls have underlined the importance of being selective and considering strategies that mitigate volatility.”
In China, the country’s strict Covid policy is outweighing broad measures to support growth and keeping investors wary. Its commitment to Covid Zero means it’s all but certain to miss its economic growth target by a large margin for the first time ever. The nation’s central bank and banking regulator urged lenders to boost loans in the latest effort to shore up the battered economy.
Crude oil remained higher with the WTI trading around $111 a barrel and the Brent trading around $114 a barrel.
