Asia Stocks Fall From Four-Month High Before Fed Meeting Asian stocks fell, with the benchmark regional index declining from a four-month high, as the Federal Reserve begins a two-day policy meeting at which it is forecast to reduce the pace of its U.S. bond buying. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.2 percent to 138.38 as of 9:16 a.m. in Tokyo. Japan’s Topix index was little changed. Markets in China and Hong Kong are yet to open. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent. The Asia-Pacific equities index climbed to a four-month high yesterday after Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers withdrew his bid to be the next Fed chairman. The Federal Open Market Committee meets today and tomorrow to consider whether to taper its $85 billion-a-month in bond buying. Purchases will probably be cut by $10 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey. “You still have the same group of folks going into the Fed meeting to express their opinions,” Lon Erickson, a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based manager at Thornburg Investment Management Inc., who oversees about $6 billion, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “If we do get any tapering at all, and I don’t think it’s a given, it will be quite small. They can still afford to leave a little liquidity in the market to try and get the labor market going.” Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 0.3 percent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index fell 0.1 percent. South Korea’s Kospi index retreated 0.6 percent. Australian Rates The Reserve Bank of Australia releases minutes today of its last meeting, when Governor Glenn Stevens and his board left the benchmark interest rate at 2.5 percent, a record low. The central bank omitted a reference of it having scope for more easing in a statement after its last meeting. The S&P 500 yesterday came within five points of its record high of 1,709.67 on Aug. 2. The benchmark gauge has rallied for nine of 10 sessions this month, rising 4 percent to rebound from the worst monthly loss since May 2012, as reports showed China’s economy strengthened and the U.S. looked less likely to attack Syria. Futures on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index were little changed in their most recent trading session. The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index of the most-traded Chinese stocks in New York added 0.4 percent yesterday, gaining for a second day.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 15:25:53 +0000
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