Fed minutes, currencies and oil
SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets are set to open lower on Thursday following two days of declines on Wall Street.
The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 27,110 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 27,070. That compared against the Nikkei 225’s last close at 27,350.30.
Australian futures also pointed to a decline. The ASX SPI 200 futures contract was at 7,434, down from the close of 7,490.1 on Wednesday.
In central bank news, the Reserve Bank of India will continue its monetary policy meeting on Thursday.
Overnight in the U.S., major stock indexes fell for a second day as investors reacted to Fed guidance on tightening monetary policy.
Fed meeting minutes showed that officials are looking to shrink the balance sheet by $95 billion a month. Interest rates are also expected to rise more quickly.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 144.67 points, or 0.42%, to 34,496.51. The S&P 500 fell 0.97% to 4,481.15, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped another 2.22% to 13,888.82 after falling about 2.3% on Tuesday.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose to a three-year high above 2.65% on Wednesday and was last at 2.5975%.
On the economic front, U.S. weekly jobless claims data is set to be released Thursday morning in the U.S.
Currencies
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, last traded at 99.599
The Japanese yen traded at 123.88 per dollar, while the Australian dollar was at $0.7513, slightly weaker than yesterday’s levels.
