Asian Stock Market: Bears remain hopeful amid pre-Fed anxiety

The Asia-Pacific shares moves lower around a sluggish session. The Hopes of faster tapering, Fed rate hike battles Omicron woes to challenge momentum traders.

Asian equities continues to lacks lackluster, mostly downbeat, during early Wednesday morning in Europe as markets brace for the key Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

Which is to say, the MSCI‘s index of Asia ex-Japan drops 0.11% whereas Japan’s Nikkei 225 prints 0.05% intraday gains by the press time.

Unpleasant emotions of the Fed‘s end to bond purchase, followed by a rate hike, join the Omicron woes to challenge the equity buyers. Moreover, the US passage of a bill to raise the debt limits and President Joe Biden’s push for getting his Build Back Better (BBB) plan through the House in 2021 keep buyers hopeful. Additionally, Pfizers announcements concerning the efficacy of its vaccines and medicines over the South African covid variant, dubbed as Omicron, also defend the bulls.

It‘s reasonable to note that escalating fears over China’s financial markets and mixed data at home, weigh on the stocks from Beijing. On the same line is the news that the US House passes Uyghur Bill aimed at China. Drowning with Chinese securities are stocks from Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. On the same line is India‘s BSE Sensex and South Korea’s KOSPI. It should be observed that the record covid cases in South Korea, per Reuters, offer additional downside pressure on the KOSPI.

On the opposite direction, markets in Indonesia print mild gains amid receding trade balance whereas the Bank of Japan‘s liquidity infusion and a lack of major negatives concerning the virus seem to help stocks from Tokyo to remain firm. On a broader front, the US Treasury yields and the S&P 500 Futures remain sluggish while the Wall Street benchmarks closed negative the previous day. It is important to know that, the Fed’s action will be crucial for near-term market directions as equity bears have high hopes from the Fed hawks.