CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower on Wednesday after comments from Federal Reserve officials tempered rate cut hopes.
Fed Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pushed back against pressure from President Trump to cut interest rates, saying that monetary policy should not overreact to any individual data point or short-term swing in sentiment.
Separately, well-known Fed dove Bullard said that a 50 bps rate cut in July would be too much.
Investors also awaited the outcome of the G20 summit this week for directional cues.
Chinese shares ended lower, dragged down by financials as caution prevailed ahead of the Trump-XI meeting.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite index slid 5.79 points or 0.19 percent to 2,976.28 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended up 0.13 percent at 28,221.98.
Japanese shares fell after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank is 'insulated from short-term political pressures,' dampening market hopes the central bank would deliver a half-point interest-rate cut in July.
The Nikkei average declined 107.22 points or 0.51 percent to 21,086.59 while the broader Topix index ended 0.59 percent lower at 1,534.34.
Exporters ended broadly lower, with Honda Motor declining 1.3 percent and Canon losing 2.6 percent.
Mitsubishi Motors gave up 1.8 percent after saying it would relocate its North American headquarters from California to Tennessee.
Tokyo Electron surged 2.2 percent and Advantest rallied 3.5 percent after Micron Technology Inc expressed optimism that good demand for DRAM will return to healthy year-over-year growth in the second half of calendar 2019.
Australian markets fell slightly as Fed officials played down expectations of aggressive rate cuts.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 17.50 points or 0.26 percent to 6,640.50 while the broader All Ordinaries index ended down 18.40 points or 0.27 percent at 6,716.10.
Financials paced the declines, with banks ANZ, NAB and Westpac ending down between 0.6 percent and 1 percent.
Mining heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto ended mixed while gold miners Newcrest, St Barbara and Norther Star fell around 1 percent.
Seoul stocks ended a choppy session on a flat note. The Kospi average swung between gains and losses before ending the session marginally higher at 2,121.85. Market heavyweight Samsung Electronics rose 0.2 percent while chipmaker SK Hynix surged 3.3 percent.
New Zealand shares finished marginally lower after the country's central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at a record low but hinted a rate cut over time to underpin subdued economic growth.
U.S. stocks tumbled overnight as simmering trade concerns and disappointing housing and consumer confidence data dented sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.7 percent and the S&P 500 lost 1 percent to end lower for the third straight session while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunged 1.5 percent.
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