Asian stock markets have reported a mixed trading day this Monday, mirroring the largely negative performance of Wall Street in the last session. Investors are being cautious with their significant moves as they look forward to the U.S. central bank's monetary policy meeting scheduled for this week. Although the US Federal Reserve is not likely to change interest rates, observers will be looking for insights into future rates direction based on the statement issued. Asian markets mostly concluded lower last Friday.
The unexpectedly heated inflation readings recently have minimized optimism for the Fed's first rate cut, which was projected to be in June. As gathered from the CME Group's FedWatch Tool, the likelihood of the Fed keeping the rates as they are for their June meeting has increased from 25 percent to 43.3 percent.
The Australian stock market traded relatively lower on Monday in temperamental trading. This adds to losses from the last two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 remaining below the 7,700.00 level. These results mirror the largely negative vibes from Wall Street last Friday. Traders continue to exercise caution ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary policy meeting this week, where it is expected that the bank will maintain its hawkish position.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 7.00 points or 0.09 percent to 7,663.30, after dipping to a low of 7,642.00 at one point. Broadly, the All Ordinaries Index is down 9.20 points or 0.12 percent to 7,914.60, and the Australian stocks closed notably lower last Friday.
In the currency market, the Aussie dollar was trading at $0.657 on Monday.
Moving to the Japanese market, it has been trading significantly higher, recovering the losses from the earlier session. The benchmark Nikkei 225 skyrocketed by over 2 percent to above the 39,500 levels. Traders anticipate the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting later this week to possibly announce variations in the monetary policy.
To close off regional news, Japan's core machine orders value was down by a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent in January, reported the Cabinet Office on Monday - coming in at 823.8 billion yen. This fell short of predictions for a 1.0 percent decrease following the downwardly revised 1.9 percent growth in December.The annual core machine orders saw a decrease of 10.9 percent, though it surpassed the forecasted drop of 11.2 percent. This follows a 0.7 percent decrease from the previous month. Predictions for the first quarter of 2024 show core machine orders possibly increasing by 4.9 percent quarterly, but experiencing a 0.1 percent annual decrease.
Moving to the currency market, the U.S. dollar is currently trading at a higher range of 148 yen as of Monday.
In other Asian markets, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia are experiencing slight decreases between 0.1 and 0.4 percent respectively, while China, South Korea, and Taiwan are witnessing increases of 0.4 percent.
On Wall Street, most stocks experienced a decline on Friday as traders anticipate the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting. This dip led to the third consecutive day of losses for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. Specifically, the Nasdaq decreased by 155.36 points or 1.0 percent to 15,973.17, the S&P 500 by 33.39 points or 0.7 percent to 5,117.09, and the Dow by 190.89 points or 0.5 percent to 38,714.77.
In terms of European markets, they delivered an uninspiring performance. The FTSE 100 Index in the UK decreased slightly by 0.2 percent, while the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index largely remained constant.
Lastly, crude oil prices descended on Friday, distancing from recent multi-month highs, largely due to profit-taking after these notable gains. The West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for April dropped by $0.22 to $81.04 per barrel.
