Asian Stock Market: FOMC-led depression continues amid a busy session

Asian shares snap the five-day winning streak as nothing matters more than the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) reluctance to offer fresh stimulus. While portraying the market’s disappointment from the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) decision, the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares, ex-Japan, declines more than 1.00% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 loses 0.68% to 23,315 ahead of Thursday’s European session.

The losses of Nikkei 225 fail to respect the Bank of Japan’s (BOJ) cautious optimism, amid status-quo, as well as increasing hopes that the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine will be out soon.

Not only Tokyo but shares in Australia and New Zealand also couldn’t cheer upbeat statistics at home. As a result, ASX 200 drops 1.06% even as Australia’s August month employment data beat forecast. The same is true for New Zealand’s NZX 50, down 0.70% to 352.69, as it paid a little heed to the better than forecast Q2 GDP figures.

Markets in China, Hong Kong and South Korea are average 1.0% in the red but those in Indonesia await the Bank Indonesia’s (BI) monetary policy report for fresh moves below 0.30% intraday loss. Further, India’s BSE Sensex follows the likes of IDX Composite while printing 39,181 level, down 0.31% on a day.

Looking forward, monetary policy meetings by the BI and the BOE will entertain the market players ahead of the US Jobless Claims and Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey.

Above all, it should be noted that the US dollar marks the biggest gains in over a week while the Chinese Yuan steps back from 16-month top flashed on Wednesday. Furthermore, S&P 500 Futures decline 1.3% and the US 10-year Treasury yeilds lose 1.1 basis points (bps) to 0.676% as we write. Additionally, gold prices drop near 1.0% while WTI declines 1.5% ahead of the OPEC+ meeting.