Asian Shares Slide Amid Anxiety Before Fed Decision

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks declined on Tuesday ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate decision on Wednesday, where the U.S. central bank is broadly expected to deliver a 25 basis-point rate cut despite existing divisions with the committee.

Traders remain anxious about the Federal Reserve's future easing pace, given conflicting trends of a cooling job market and sticky inflation, as well as gaps in the data from the government shutdown.

The U.S. dollar was under pressure in Asian trade and gold traded below $4,200 per ounce while oil prices were steady after slipping 2 percent in the previous two sessions.

China's Shanghai Composite index ended down 0.37 percent at 3,909.52 after the country's top decision-making body, the Politburo, announced plans to strengthen domestic demand for 2026 with "more proactive fiscal policy" and "appropriately loose monetary policy".

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 1.29 percent to 25,434.23, dragged down by tech stocks.

Japanese markets recovered from an early slide to end on a positive note. The yen steadied around 156.05 per dollar after slipping overnight as a magnitude-7.6 quake struck off Japan's northeast coast.

The Nikkei average edged up by 0.14 percent to 50,655.10 while the broader Topix index finished little changed at 3,384.92 ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy decision next week.

Tech shares such as SoftBank Group, Advantest and Tokyo Electron closed higher after Nvidia Corp. was granted permission by U.S. President Donald Trump to ship its H200 artificial intelligence chip to China in exchange for a 25 percent cut of the sales. Chip-making tool manufacturer Disco Corp surged 4.7 percent.

Seoul stocks ended slightly lower on uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's future policy path. The Kospi average ended down 0.27 percent at 4,143.55, snapping a two-session winning streak.

Semiconductor and auto shares fell on profit taking after recent strong gains. Samsung Electronics lost 1 percent, SK Hynix shed 1.9 percent and Hyundai Motor gave up 2.7 percent.

Australian markets declined as a hawkish RBA hold lifted rate expectations and pushed yields higher.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates unchanged for a third straight meeting as expected, citing inflation risks, and reiterated that price risks have "tilted to the upside."

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.45 percent to 8,585.90 amid a broad-based sell-off led by miners. The broader All Ordinaries index settled 0.44 percent lower at 8,875.80.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index slid 0.23 percent to 13,454.78, giving up earlier gains.

Overnight, U.S. stocks ended lower as Treasury yields gained on inflation worries and investors waited for clues about future policy moves from an apparently divided Fed.

The Dow dipped half a percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent.