Asian Shares Decline On Fed Rate Concerns

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended lower on Tuesday as a stimulus-driven China rally paused and minutes of the May 2024 Reserve Bank of Australia meeting showed the central bank considered increasing interest rates during the meeting.

Gold slipped from record highs touched the previous day and the dollar firmed up after U.S. Federal Reserve officials tempered investor enthusiasm about potential interest-rate cuts.

Oil prices dipped despite a recent uptick in geopolitical tensions and chances of crude oil production and export getting affected in the aftermath of Iranian president's death in a helicopter crash.

China's Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.42 percent to 3,157.97, dragged down by cyclical shares.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slumped 2.12 percent to 19,220.62, with electric vehicle and technology stocks leading losses. Alibaba Group Holding fell over 1 percent after its cloud unit further slashed the API input price for its GPT-4 class "Qwen-Long" foundation model from the Tongyi Qianwen series.

Seoul stocks declined ahead of the release of the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting.

The Kospi average dipped 0.65 percent to 2,724.18, with Posco Holdings and LG Chem falling around 2 percent each. IT services company Samsung SDS surged 5 percent.

Australian markets ended slightly lower as hawkish RBA minutes weighed. The benchmark S&P ASX 200 dropped 0.15 percent to 7,851.70 while the broader All Ordinaries index settled 0.15 percent lower at 8,120.20.

James Hardie Industries, the largest global maker of fibre cement products, plunged 14.8 percent after lowering its fiscal 2025 outlook.

Casino operator Star Entertainment Group lost 7.4 percent after Hard Rock International denied any involvement in a takeover bid.

Diagnostics firm Sonic Healthcare gave up 6 percent after cutting its FY24 guidance. Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P NZX-50 index ended down 0.51 percent at 11,675.99.

U.S. stocks ended mixed overnight as Treasury yields climbed on hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7 percent to close at a record high ahead of Nvidia's closely watched earnings report.

The S&P 500 finished marginally higher while the Dow slipped half a percent after closing above 40,000 Friday.