Asian Shares Mostly Fall Ahead Of Central Bank Meetings

Asian shares mostly declined in cautious trading Tuesday ahead of central bank meetings around the world.

Markets may be volatile due to the difficulty in positioning the central bank meetings this week:

The Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan are holding monetary policy meetings this week, Yuri Kageyama reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 reversed earlier losses to rise 0.2% in afternoon trading to 38,525.95. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5% to 7,953.20. South Korea’s Kospi shed 1% to 2,738.19.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.3% to 17,014.17, while the Shanghai Composite index declined 0.4% to 2,879.30.

“Markets may be having a tough time positioning the central bank meetings this week,” Jing Yi Tan of Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

In Japan, the government reported the nation’s unemployment rate in June stood at 2.5%, inching down from 2.6% the previous month, and marking the first improvement in five months.

US stock indices drifted to a mixed finish Monday to kick off a week full of earnings reports from Wall Street’s most influential companies and a Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates.

The S&P 500 edged up 0.1% to 5,463.54, coming off its first back-to-back weekly losses since April. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1% to 40,539.93, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.1% to 17,370.20.