Asian stock markets are trading mostly lower on Thursday, following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street, as traders digested the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement, which indicated the US Fed is preparing to begin reducing the size of its balance sheet soon after raising interest rates. Asian markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday.
The sell-off came as the Fed minutes seemed to have a more hawkish tone, raising concerns the central bank will be more aggressive than anticipated. According to the minutes of the December 14-15 meeting, members of the Fed are preparing to begin reducing the size of the central bank's approximately $8.8 trillion balance sheet soon after raising interest rates.
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