Asian Markets Mixed In Cautious Trades

(RTTNews) - Asian stock markets are trading mixed on Tuesday, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders remain cautious and reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the US Fed's interest-rate decision tomorrow, with the central bank widely expected to raise its benchmark lending rate for a tenth time. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Monday.

Ahead of the meeting, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating an 88.9 percent chance the Fed will raise rates by 25 basis points and a 64.1 percent chance the central bank will subsequently leave rates unchanged in June.

In addition to the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England as well as the Reserve Bank of Australia are undertaking a review of interest rates this week.

The Australian stock market is modestly lower in choppy trading on Tuesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous two sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying above the 7,300 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders tread cautiously ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's rate decision later in the day. The RBA is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 3.60 percent.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index is losing 9.20 points or 0.13 percent to 7,325.40, after hitting a low of 7,308.80 earlier. The broader All Ordinaries Index is down 4.90 points or 0.07 percent to 7,519.30. Australian stocks closed notably higher on Monday.

Among the major miners, BHP Group and Rio Tinto are edging down 0.3 to 0.4 percent each, while Mineral Resources is edging up 0.4 percent. Fortescue Metals is flat.

Oil stocks are mostly lower. Beach energy, Woodside Energy and Santos are losing almost 1 percent each, while Origin Energy is edging down 0.1 percent. Among tech stocks, Appen is gaining more than 2 percent and Zip is adding almost 1 percent, while WiseTech Global and Xero are edging up 0.2 to 0.4 percent each. Afterpay owner Block is losing almost 1 percent.

Gold miners are mostly higher. Northern Star Resources and Evolution Mining are edging up 0.5 percent each, while Newcrest Mining and Gold Road Resources are up more than 1 percent each. Resolute Mining is gaining more than 2 percent.

Among the big four banks, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac are edging down 0.1 to 0.5 percent each, while ANZ Banking is flat.

In the currency market, the Aussie dollar is trading at $0.663 on Tuesday.

The Japanese stock market is slightly lower in choppy trading on Tuesday, giving up some of the gains in the previous three sessions, with the Nikkei 225 staying a tad above the 29,100 level, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, dragged by losses in financial stocks.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index closed the morning session at 29,104.83, down 18.35 points or 0.06 percent, after touching a high of 29,278.80 and low of 29,083.13 earlier. Japanese shares ended significantly higher on Monday.

Market heavyweight SoftBank Group is edging down 0.5 percent, while Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing is edging up 0.5 percent. Among automakers, Honda is edging down 0.1 percent and Toyota is losing almost 1 percent.

In the tech space, Advantest is gaining almost 4 percent, Screen Holdings is adding almost 1 percent and Tokyo Electron is up more than 1 percent.

In the banking sector, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial are losing more than 1 percent each, while Mizuho Financial is down almost 1 percent.

The major exporters are mixed. Canon is edging up 0.3 percent and Panasonic is gaining more than 1 percent, while Mitsubishi Electric is losing more than 1 percent and Sony is edging down 0.5 percent. Among the other major gainers, Renesas Electronics is gaining 4.5 percent.

Conversely, there are no other major losers.

In economic news, the monetary base in Japan was down 1.7 percent on year in April, the Bank of Japan said on Tuesday - coming in at 675.928 trillion yen. That follows the upwardly revised 1.0 percent contraction in March (originally -1.2 percent). The seasonally adjusted monetary base slumped 7.5 percent on month after jumping 13.5 percent in the previous month.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar is trading in the lower 137 yen-range on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in Asia, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are higher by between 0.3 and 0.6 percent each, while New Zealand, Hong Kong and Indonesia are lower by between 0.1 and 0.8 percent each. China remains closed for Labor Day holiday. On the Wall Street, stocks showed a lack of direction throughout much of the trading session on Friday following the notable advance seen to close out the previous week. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

The major averages eventually ended the session slightly lower. While the Dow dipped 46.46 points or 0.1 percent to 34,051.70, the Nasdaq slipped 13.96 points or 0.1 percent to 12,212.60 and the S&P 500 edged down 1.61 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 4,167.87.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all remained closed on the day.

Crude oil prices tumbled on Monday, weighed down by concerns about economic growth and worries about the outlook for energy demand. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June sank $1.12 or 1.5 percent at $75.66 a barrel.