Asia-Pacific markets mostly fall following Wall Street losses ahead of Fed rate decision

Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Tuesday after losses on Wall Street, with investors holding back ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision on Dec. 10 stateside.

The central bank is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 basis points at its final meeting of the year, bringing the Federal Funds rate to 3.5%-3.75%. However, experts said the Fed will then take a more data-dependent stance.

“I would not be surprised for Jerome Powell to be like, ‘We’ve cut, and now we’re in a place where we really need to watch the data,’ and he’ll stop just short of being hawkish, because we have seen the softness in the labor market,” said Stephen Kolano, chief investment officer at Integrated Partners.

The Nikkei 225 was up 0.14% in a volatile trading session, closing at 50,655.1, while the broad-based Topix was flat, ending at 3,384.92.

Tech gains limited the Nikkei’s losses, with names like Konica Minolta climbing 5.72% and semiconductor manufacturer Disco Corp adding 4.66%, among the top gainers on the index.

South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.27% to 4,143.55, but the small-cap Kosdaq ended the day 0.38% higher at 931.35.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.29% to 25,434.23, leading losses in Asia, while mainland China’s CSI 300 index lost 0.51% and ended at 4,598.22.

India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.25%, while the BSE Sensex was 0.27% lower.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.45% to 8,585.9 after the country’s central bank held its policy rate at 3.6% as expected.

“The recent data suggest the risks to inflation have tilted to the upside, but it will take a little longer to assess the persistence of inflationary pressures,” the Reserve Bank of Australia said in a statement following the rate decision.

U.S. stock futures were slightly higher Monday night, buoyed by President Donald Trump’s approval of Nvidia H200 chip sales to China in a deal that gives the U.S. government a hefty cut.

In after-hours trading, Nvidia climbed 2.2% following a Truth Social post Monday evening that said the chipmaking giant could ship its H200 chips to “approved customers” in China and elsewhere under the condition that a quarter of the sales will be paid to the U.S. government. 

Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 pulled back 0.35%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.14%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 215.67 points, or 0.45%.

—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Alex Harring contributed to this report.