Asian stocks outside Australia turn cautious ahead of Fed

The stocks on the Asian bourses shrugged-off record-high Wall Street stocks, and now trade cautiously heading into the FOMC decision due later on Wednesday.

Moreover, overnight slump in oil prices, in wake of bearish API inventories report, also weighed on the energy and resource stocks. While upbeat Japanese Tankan manufacturing surveys added to the ongoing yen strength, which dragged the exporters’ stocks lower on the Japanese indices.

However, the Australian equities bucked the trend and surged to fresh sixteen-month tops on corporate news, after Tatts Group Ltd. surged 9%, in response to a consortium bid for the betting and lottery company.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 trades muted around 19,260, the Australian S&P/ASX 200 rallies +0.80% to 5,590. The Chinese equities extend the downside, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite index dropping -0.31%, while CSI300 index also skids -0.63%. Hong Kong markets rise +0.40% to 22,540 levels.

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