Asian stocks mixed ahead of Fed meeting

On Friday, the CAC-40 shed 0.8 percent, the DAX was off 0.6 percent and the FTSE lost 0.1 percent. Wall Street looked set for modest losses, with futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index down 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively. The Australian dollar slipped 0.4 percent, while Indonesia’s rupiah sank 0.6 percent and the Thai baht lost 0.3 percent.

An upbeat assessment of the United States economy’s strength from Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer on Sunday was seen raising the prospect of Fed chair Janet Yellen flagging up a rate rise at a meeting with the world’s central bankers on Friday.

“The U.S. economic indicators are looking healthy and the probability of a U.S. rate hike will go up further in the coming months, rallying the dollar and putting pressure on gold”, said OCBC Bank analyst Barnabas Gan.

ANALYST’S TAKE: “Recent market price action suggests that nervousness about Fed policy may persist ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium”, said Citigroup economists in a report.

INDIA’S NEW BANKER: India’s government ended weeks of speculation by naming Urjit Patel governor of the Reserve Bank of India. They said Patel’s personal prominence also might help defuse concern the government was trying to reduce the bank’s independence.

CORPORATE DEALS: Shares in Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta jumped about 11 percent after a US national security panel cleared its acquisition by China National Chemical Corp.

French outsourcer Teleperformance rose sharply after announcing the acquisition of translation services company LanguageLine Solutions in a $1.52bn deal.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3 per cent to 3,098.10 while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.2 per cent to 16,584.75. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3 percent to 22,997.91 and Seoul’s Kospi advanced 0.9 percent to 2,017.94.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 2-1/2 basis points to 1.565 percent, the yield on 5-year note climbed 2 basis points to 1.153 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year note also bounced 1 basis point at 0.754 percent by 12:30 GMT.

The dollar strengthened and US Treasury yields hit a two-week high on Monday on expectations the Federal Reserve will give a signal this week that it is gearing up to raise interest rates.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude shed 86 cents to $48.25 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The euro was at $1.1290, down from $1.1324 in NY.

Brent crude futures were trading at $49.94 per barrel at 0712 GMT, down 95 cents, or 1.87 per cent. Brent crude, used to price global oils, tumbled 78 cents to $50.10 per barrel in London.

USA 10-year Treasury yields touched a two-week high of 1.60 per cent on Monday while shorter-dated yields touched levels not seen since Britain’s shock vote to leave the European Union in June.