Business
Asian stocks: Asian stocks steady at open, Bitcoin dips again
MSCI Inc.’s gauge of regional shares was little changed as benchmarks in South Korea and Australia swung between gains and losses. Japanese indexes were mixed. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures treaded water after the US benchmark capped its sixth advance in seven trading sessions on Tuesday. Bitcoin resumed losses after surging back above $90,000 in the previous session.
The Aussie dollar erased earlier gains after third-quarter economic growth came in slower than forecast.
The mixed backdrop highlighted the fragile sentiment heading into the year-end, with investors juggling tight equity moves and renewed volatility in cryptocurrencies as they wait for this month’s rate decisions by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. With only a handful of data releases left before Fed officials meet next week, equity traders are treading carefully.
The stock market still requires a bit more broadening out before expecting an immediate push back to fresh highs, according to Mark Newton at Fundstrat Global Advisors. “I have a constructive view for December, but still believe it is likely to show a ‘back and forth’ type pattern over the next couple of weeks before turning higher to new highs.”
As traders awaited the last few economic reports before next week’s Fed decision, President Donald Trump said he plans to announce his selection to lead the central bank in early 2026. In response, traders in US futures markets are gaming out a wide range of policy paths and favoring more interest rate cuts next year.
Trump has pressured the Fed for months to lower interest rates, and naming a successor to Jerome Powell — whose term as Chair expires in May — would give the president his biggest chance yet to reshape the institution.
After cutting interest rates by more than a percentage point, Fed officials are now wondering where to stop – and finding there’s more disagreement than ever.
In the past year or so, prescriptions for where rates should end up have diverged by the most since at least 2012, when US central bankers started publishing their estimates. That’s feeding into an unusually public split over whether to deliver another cut next week, and what comes after that.
“Nothing is going to change our view that the Fed eases next week, but it is looking more like a hawkish cut,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities. “We can see at least three dissents next week.”
Money markets show traders are pricing in nearly four quarter-point Fed reductions over the next year, including one on Dec. 10.
“If the Fed doesn’t deliver as many cuts, there’s some normalization” in Treasury yields, said Jay Barry, JPMorgan’s head of global rates strategy, at a media briefing. The US economy “bends but doesn’t break,” he added.
In commodities, oil steadied on Wednesday after declining in the previous session as traders assessed the state of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin held “very useful” talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner though the sides failed to reach agreement on a plan to end the war. Elsewhere, silver and gold traded little changed.
