A public screen displays stock figures in Shanghai, China, on Monday, Oct. 10, 2022.
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Asia-Pacific markets fell ahead of the rate decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve and a slew of economic data from across the region, including China and Australia.
Australia will release its inflation numbers for December and the fourth quarter, while China will announce its official purchasing managers index figures for January.
Retail sales and industrial output data for December are also expected out of Japan and South Korea.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.15% after marking a seven-day winning streak on Tuesday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid 0.75% in early trade, while the broad based Topix inched down 0.26%.
South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.17%, while the small cap Kosdaq saw a bigger loss of 0.32%.
The moves come after heavyweight Samsung Electronics reported a 34% fall in operating profit year-on-year in the fourth quarter, as well as a 73.4% plunge in net profit in the same period. Shares of Samsung fell 0.67%.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 15,702, pointing to a similar open compared with the HSI’s close of 15,703.45.
Overnight in the U.S., the three major indexes ended the day mixed as Wall Street also waits for the latest Fed decision on interest rates.
The Fed funds futures market has priced in a 97% probability that the central bank will leave rates unchanged, according to the CME FedWatch tool, so investors are instead left anticipating a shift in the policy statement that will close out the meeting.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.06%, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 0.76%. In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.35% to end at 38,467.31, marking its seventh record close this year.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Alex Harring contributed to this report
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