SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific declined in Thursday morning trade as investors reacted to minutes released overnight from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s November meeting.
Stocks in Japan were lower in early trade, with the Nikkei 225 dipping 0.1% while the Topix index shed 0.27%.
South Korea’s Kospi also traded 0.28% lower.
Meanwhile, shares in Australia edged down, with the S&P/ASX 200 fractionally lower.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan traded little changed.
Investor reaction to minutes from the Fed’s meeting earlier this month was watched. That summary showed officials at the U.S. central bank discussing ways of providing more accommodation to the economy as the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic continued.
Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined about 173.77 points to close at 29,872.47. The S&P 500 shed 0.2% to finish its trading day at 3,629.65 after reaching an all-time closing high in the previous session. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed as it closed 0.5% higher at 12,094.40.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 91.994 after seeing levels above 92.4 earlier this week.
The Japanese yen traded at 104.38 per dollar, having seen levels below 104 against the greenback early this week. The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.7363, above levels below $0.732 seen earlier in the week.
The Bank of Korea is set to announce its interest rate decision at around 9:00 a.m. HK/SIN on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expect no change to the base rate.
Ahead of that announcement, the Korean won traded at 1,106.62 per dollar.
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Source: CNBC