Asian stocks except for China and Japan declined on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve stood pat on the monetary policy but signaled that a December rate hike was still on the table.
Federal Reserve officials said following their two-day meeting in Washington that they will consider tightening policy at their next meeting in December, without making a commitment to move this year, as the economy continues to expand at a “moderate” pace.
Although the jobs pace has been slower, “labor market indicators, on balance, show that underutilization of labor resources has diminished since early this year,” the FOMC said in a statement Wednesday.
The Shanghai Composite closed up 0.36% and Nikkei 225 rose 0.17%. Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.60% and S&P ASX dropped 1.19%.
Major U.S. gauges jumped more than 1 percent
overnight, but it hardly helped sentiment. The Nasdaq Composite leading gains, closing up 1.3 percent. The Dow Jones added 1.1% and S&P 500 rose 1.2%.
On Thursday Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed in the green after choppy trade, even as positive factory output data signaled there are few chances for further easing from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) at Friday's policy meeting.
Industrial production rose 1.0 percent on-month in September, official data showed early Thursday, beating expectations for a 0.5 percent drop.
The stronger outlook suggests a continued rebound of industry production and, together with September results, could persuade the BoJ to keep its current policy unchanged.
Securities firms were among the biggest losers on Thursday, following weaker-than-expected profits for the third quarter.
Nomura Holdings and Daiwa Securities plunged nearly 3 percent each.
Nintendo dropped 9 percent after the game maker pushed back the much-awaited launch of its videogame service for smartphones by a few months to March 2016.
Machinery stocks were among the winners. Machine tool builder Okuma was the leader with a rise of 9.2 percent, after it elevated its profit outlook for the year ending March and hiked dividend payouts. Komatsu advanced 1.8 percent.
