Asian Stocks Up Ahead of a Looming Fed Hike

By Zhang Mengying

Investing.com – Asia-Pacific stocks were largely up on Tuesday morning ahead of a looming interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 inched down 0.05% by 11:04 PM ET (3:04 AM GMT).

South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.23%.

In Australia, the ASX 200 edged up 0.12%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 1.38%

China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.54% while the Shenzhen Component was up 0.69%.

 The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.78%.

The Fed’s two-day meeting remained the focus of the markets while investors are priced for a 75 basis-point rate hike.

Meanwhile, investors are also looking to the earnings reports from the likes of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which are due this week. They are also assessing the impact of ongoing disruptions to European gas supplies from Russia.

For Katerina Simonetti, an adviser at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, the litany of risks exposes the vulnerability of the 6% rebound in global shares from June lows.

“This is most likely a bear market rally and there are significant risks still facing this market,” Simonetti told Bloomberg.

“We’re probably going to be seeing a lot of choppiness and potentially some further declines in the market before the year-end.”

Elsewhere, investors were also evaluating a move by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) To apply for a primary listing in Hong Kong, which could make its shares accessible to mainland Chinese investors.

On the data front, U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data is due on Thursday.