The Asian stock markets are expected to open lower on Wednesday, with investors likely to lock in gains after many of the regional bourses rallied sharply earlier in the week.
In addition, traders are likely to move to the sidelines amid expectations that the ECB will unveil new measures this week to drive down the cost of financing. Investors are also awaiting an announcement by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the all-important U.S. jobs report on Friday.
Some solid U.S. economic data provides support as Standard & Poor's reported a bigger than expected increase in home prices, while a report from the Institute for Supply Management - Chicago showed that Chicago-area business activity unexpectedly expanded in July. The Conference Board also reported an unexpected improvement in consumer confidence in July.
The U.S. markets finished lower on Tuesday as the Dow fell 64.33 points or 0.5 percent to finish at 13,008.68, while the NASDAQ slipped 6.32 points or 0.2 percent to end at 2,939.52 and the S&P 500 dropped 5.98 points or 0.4 percent to 1,379.32.
The major European markets also moved lower on Tuesday as the DAX of German rose by 0.15 percent, but the CAC 40 of France finished down by 0.87 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. fell by 0.81 percent and the SMI of Switzerland decreased by 0.05 percent.
The Asian markets were mostly higher on Tuesday as South Korea's KOSPI surged 2.07 percent, while Taiwan jumped 1.55 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng spiked 1.08 percent, Indonesia soared 1.05 percent, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.69 percent, India added 0.54 percent, Thailand gathered 0.50 percent, Singapore's Straits Times collected 0.12 percent. Moving lower, China's Shanghai Composite shed 0.30 percent and Malaysia eased 0.05 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
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