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Stock market today: Asian shares mostly decline after Nasdaq sets a record ahead of Fed meeting

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Stock market today: Asian shares mostly decline after Nasdaq sets a record ahead of Fed meeting
News

News

Stock market today: Asian shares mostly decline after Nasdaq sets a record ahead of Fed meeting

2024-12-17 15:21 Last Updated At:15:30

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares fell in Asia on Tuesday after the Nasdaq set a record ahead of a meeting by the Federal Reserve later this week that could set the direction for markets in the new year.

U.S. futures slipped and oil prices reversed early losses.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.2% to 39,364.68, helped by gains in technology shares including SoftBank Group Corp., whose CEO Masayoshi Son joined President-elect Donald Trump in announcing plans Monday by the Japanese technology and telecoms giant to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years.

SoftBank's Tokyo-listed shares jumped 4.4%.

Chinese markets slid further, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index losing 0.1% to 19,773.60. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.7% to 3,361.49.

“In China, recent disappointing data continues to pressure domestic policymakers to intensify their policy stimulus to invigorate domestic demand,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

South Korea's Kospi sank 1.3% to 2,456.81 as authorities were pushing to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree of last week. The country's Constitutional Court began its first meeting Monday on Yoon’s case to determine whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8% to 8,314.00. The Taiex in Taiwan fell 0.1% while the Bangkok's SET dropped 0.8%.

On Monday, U.S. stock indexes drifted amid mixed trading.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,074.08 and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2% to a record close of 20,173.89. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, giving up 0.3% to 43,717.48.

Broadcom leaped 11.2% to help lead the S&P 500 for a second straight day after delivering a profit report last week that beat analysts’ expectations thanks to the wave of enthusiasm about its artificial-intelligence offerings.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its last move on interest rates for the year. The widespread expectation is that it will cut its main rate for a third straight time, as it tries to boost the slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its target of 2%.

The question is how much more it will cut rates next year, and Fed officials will release projections for where they see the federal funds rate ending 2025, along with other economic indicators, once their meeting concludes. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will also answer questions in a press conference following the meeting.

Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times so far this year and is heading for one of its best years of the millennium. The economy has held up better than many feared, continuing to grow even after the Fed hiked the federal funds rate to a two-decade high in hopes of grinding down on inflation, which topped 9% two summers ago.

On Wall Street, MicroStrategy jumped as much as 7% during the day as it continues to benefit from the surging price for bitcoin, which set another all-time high on Monday of over $107,000, according to CoinDesk. It was trading at $106,884 early Tuesday.

Bitcoin’s price has catapulted from roughly $44,000 at the start of the year on expectations that Trump will favor digital currencies.

Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.39% on Monday from 4.40% late Friday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, eased to 4.24% from 4.25%.

In other dealings early Tuesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up 6 cents to $70.77 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 18 cents to $73.70 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 154.07 Japanese yen from 154.14 yen. The euro fell to $1.0509 from $1.0513.

The New York Stock Exchange is shown behind the statue titled "Fearless Girl", Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The New York Stock Exchange is shown behind the statue titled "Fearless Girl", Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

MOSCOW (AP) — An explosive device planted close to a residential apartment block in Moscow killed the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces, Lt. General Igor Kirillov, early Tuesday, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.

Kirillov’s assistant also died in the blast, triggered by the device which was placed in a scooter, officials said.

Russian investigators have opened a case into the two deaths, according to the committee's spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko.

“Investigators, forensic experts and operational services are working at the scene,” she said in a statement. “Investigative and search activities are being carried out to establish all the circumstances around this crime.”

Ukraine’s Security Services on Dec. 16 charged Kirillov with the use of banned chemical weapons during Russia’s military operation in Ukraine that started in Feb. 2022.

Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, said that they had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield since February 2022, particularly K-1 combat grenades.

During the almost 3-year operation, Russia has made small but steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls.

Investigates work at the place where Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces was killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment's block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)

Investigates work at the place where Lt. General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defence Forces was killed by an explosive device planted close to a residential apartment's block in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo)

FILE - Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the Russian military's radiation, chemical and biological protection unit, attends a briefing in Kubinka Patriot park, outside Moscow, Russia, on June 22, 2018. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Maj. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the Russian military's radiation, chemical and biological protection unit, attends a briefing in Kubinka Patriot park, outside Moscow, Russia, on June 22, 2018. (AP Photo, File)

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