People crossing the street in Shibuya, Tokyo.
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Asia-Pacific markets were set to open higher, breaking ranks with Wall Street after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that “equity prices are fairly highly valued.”
Powell also signaled that the rate-cutting path wasn’t clear and that the central bank faces a “challenging situation.”
Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 was poised to open higher, with its futures contract trading at 8,852, against the index’s last close of 8,845.9.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was set to open higher, with its futures contract last traded at 26,188 against the index’s previous close of 26,159.12.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 is set to open lower after coming back from a holiday, with the futures contract in Chicago at 45,415 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 45,330, against the index’s last close of 45,493.66.
Australia is set to release its inflation data for August later in the day.
Overnight stateside, the three major averages ended the trading day lower. The S&P 500 took a pause from its recent gains as doubts about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence bull trend worried investors.
The broad market index closed down 0.55% at 6,656.92 after reaching a new all-time intraday high earlier in the session and posting a record close on Monday. The Nasdaq Composite fell nearly 1% to settle at 22,573.47, with the losses led by AI names like Nvidia, Oracle and Amazon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 88.76 points, or 0.19%, lower at 46,292.78.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
