SINGAPORE – Asia-Pacific markets will be lower on Monday as investors look ahead to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting this week.

In Australia, the ASX 200 was down 0.9% in early trade, with most sectors lower. The energy, materials and financials sub-indices fell 0.98%, 2.17% and 0.65%, respectively, as major banking, mining and oil stocks sold off.

Nikkei futures pointed to a lower open in Japan, with the benchmark index closing at 27,522.26 in the last session.

Global stock markets sold off on Friday. On U.S. soil, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 7.6% for the week, its biggest drop since October 2020 and more than 14% below November’s record close.

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday to decide the next move for U.S. monetary policy.

Rising inflation is the Fed’s main concern, and investors will be closely watching the Fed’s actual level of concern — Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will brief the media after a statement from the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday afternoon local time.

“Markets have been trading cautiously ahead of this week’s FOMC statement, which is expected to be hawkish and likely to outline an increase in growth from March,” ANZ research analysts wrote in a Monday morning note. reason for the interest.”

They said they doubt the Fed will end quantitative easing this week, as some markets have speculated.

“We also doubt that the Fed will start tightening policy, raising rates by 50 basis points. If the Fed is not as hawkish as some worst-case fears suggest, markets may stabilize,” ANZ analysts added.

In currency markets, the dollar was near flat at 95.636 against a basket of currencies.

The yen was at 113.74 against the dollar, up from 114.8 the previous week. The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.7183.

Oil prices rose in Asian trading hours on Monday: U.S. crude was up 0.67% at $85.71 a barrel.

U.S. crude and global benchmark Brent rose for a fifth straight week last week, up about 2 percent for the week, according to Reuters. Prices have risen more than 10% this year due to supply issues.