Most of the Asian equity benchmarks are trading lower in early deals on Thursday following the overnight losses on Wall Street after the latest FOMC meeting minutes revealed that the Federal Reserve is ready to start shrinking its bloated $4.5 trillion balance sheet this year. Investors are also looking forward to the highly-anticipated meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later today. The Japanese market is notably lower, tracking a stronger yen as well as the weak lead overnight from Wall Street after the Federal Reserve revealed its decision to unwind its balance sheet later this year. Among the other Asian markets, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan are in negative territory. Bucking the trend, Shanghai is modestly higher.
Nikkei 225 dipped 310.26 points or 1.64% to 18,551.01, Hang Seng decreased 145.54 points or 0.6% to 24,255.26, Taiwan Weighted dropped 59.22 points or 0.6% to 9,890.26, Jakarta Composite declined 23.12 points or 0.41% to 5,653.86, KOSPI Index slipped 13.51 points or 0.63% to 2,147.34, Straits times contracted 13.17 points or 0.61 points to 2147.68 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.74 points or 0.27% to 1,739.93.
On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 3.46 points or 0.11% to 3,273.76.