By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mostly up on Tuesday morning, as U.S. shares came off a record-high close and investors await policy decisions from key central banks.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.32% by 9:42 PM ET (1:42 AM GMT). South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1.65%, with October’s consumer price index growing 0.1% month-on-month and 3.2% year-on-year.
In Australia, the ASX 200 fell 0.63%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped 1.72%.
China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.25% while the Shenzhen Component was steady at 14,476.53.
In the U.S., the S&P 500 hit a new peak and the Dow Jones Industrial Average touched 36,000 for the first time. Optimism over recent corporate earnings provided a boost, as Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) extended a rally. However, COVID-19-related supply chain challenges, alongside higher energy costs, could become a bigger challenge should they feed into wider, more enduring price pressures.
Investors now look to the U.S. Federal Reserve, which hands down its policy decision on Wednesday where it is expected to announce that it will begin asset tapering. The decision comes as the most-widespread U.S. supply crunch since 1973’s oil crisis fuels price pressures.
Other central banks handing down policy decisions include the Reserve Bank of Australia, whose decision is due later in the day. The Bank of England will hand its decision down on Nov. 4.
The key focus for the Fed meeting “will be much more on the Fed’s inflation stance than asset tapering,” Standard Chartered (OTC:SCBFF) Bank head of global G10 FX research Steve Englander said in a note.
“The elephant in the room is the headline and underlying inflation, which are higher than the Fed was anticipating,” he added.
On the data front, October’s Institute of Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), released on Monday, was 60.8. The manufacturing PMI was a lower-than-expected 58.4.
The ISM non-manufacturing PMI is due on Wednesday. Trade data, including exports and imports, will be released on Thursday, followed by the latest U.S. jobs report, including non-farm payrolls, on Friday.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion tax and spending package seemed to hit a bump on the road, after Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, warned that he could vote against the package and appealed for more time for Congress to assess the plan’s impact.