Asia-Pacific markets were set to open lower Tuesday, tracking losses on Wall Street as investors held back ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision on Dec. 10 stateside.
The central bank is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 basis points at its final meeting of the year, bringing the Federal Funds rate to 3.5%-3.75%. However, experts said the Fed will then take a more data-dependent stance.
“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,” said Stephen Kolano, chief investment officer at Integrated Partners.
Over in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.34% in early trade.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 futures pointed to a weaker open for the market, with the futures contract in Chicago at 50,425 and its counterpart in Osaka at 50,290 compared to the previous close of 50,581.94
Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 25,763, nearly unchanged from the last close of 25,765.26.
U.S. stock futures were slightly higher Monday night, buoyed by President Donald Trump’s approval of Nvidia H200 chip sales to China in a deal that gives the U.S. government a hefty cut.
In after-hours trading, Nvidia climbed 2.2% following a Truth Social post Monday evening that said the chipmaking giant could ship its H200 chips to “approved customers” in China and elsewhere under the condition that a quarter of the sales will be paid to the U.S. government.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 pulled back 0.35%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.14%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 215.67 points, or 0.45%.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Alex Harring contributed to this report.