Asia-Pacific markets are set for a mixed open after minutes from the last U.S. Federal Reserve meeting revealed that Fed officials have grown more concerned about inflation, with members indicating they lacked confidence to move forward on interest rate reductions.
In Asia, investors will assess flash business activity data from Australia and Japan, as well as Singapore’s final first quarter gross domestic figures.
South Korea’s central bank will be announcing its policy rate decision today.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect the Bank of Korea to hold its benchmark lending rate at 3.5%, although a note from ING last week said the meeting will still be closely watched, “as two new members have joined the [BOK’s] board since the last meeting and it will be interesting to see if this has changed the view of the board.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 is set to rise, with the futures contract in Chicago at 38,850 and its counterpart in Osaka at 38,840 against the index’s last close of 38,617.1.
In contrast, futures for the S&P/ASX 200 point to a weaker open, at 7,796 compared to the last close of 7,848.1.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 19,035, also pointing to a lower open compared to the HSI’s close of 19,195.6.
Overnight in the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average saw its worst day in May and declined 0.51%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.27% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.18%.
Minutes from the April 30-May 1 policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee released Wednesday indicated apprehension from policymakers about when it would be time to ease.
A notable bright spot in the U.S. however, was artificial intelligence darling Nvidia, which saw its shares cross the $1,000 mark for the first time in extended trading on Wednesday, after the chipmaker reported fiscal first-quarter results that topped analyst estimates.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.