Asian markets dip ahead of Fed decision on interest rates

Trade data for Japan showed exports fell 0.8% last month from a year ago, marking the second straight month of declines, as exports to China lagged, dropping 11%. Japan’s exports to the U.S. rose 5.1%, while exports to Europe surged 12.7%. By product category, auto exports zoomed 40.9%, while those of semiconductors rose 8.1%, according to Finance Ministry data.

“We think the weak recovery in China will continue to have a negative impact on exports for a while, but semiconductors seem like they are bottoming out from the down cycle,” Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING, said in a report.

He said the strong contribution to economic growth in the April-July quarter was expected to weaken in this quarter.

In an update on the Chinese economy, officials in Beijing acknowledged challenges in boosting growth in the worlds No. 2 economy, but told reporters they were confident that a recovery was underway and that they had the capacity to ensure stability of financial markets.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500
SPX
slipped 0.2% to 4,443.95. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
dropped 0.3% to 34,517.73, and the Nasdaq composite
COMP
lost 0.2% to 13,678.19.

Markets have see-sawed for weeks on uncertainty about whether the Fed is done with its market-shaking hikes to interest rates. By pulling its main interest rate to the highest level in more than two decades, the Fed has helped inflation to cool from its peak last year but at the cost of hurting prices for investments and damaging some corners of the economy.

The Fed began its latest meeting on interest rates Tuesday, with an announcement scheduled for Wednesday. The overwhelming expectation is for the Fed to announce no change to rates. More focus will be on updated projections Fed officials give for where they see rates heading in upcoming years.

Traders are split on whether the Fed may raise rates again this year, but they’re largely expecting the Fed to begin cutting rates next year. Such cuts can act like steroids for financial markets, giving a lift to all kinds of investments.

A soft landing, where inflation gets back to the Fed’s 2% target without a painful recession, “is still possible, but not probable in our view,” according to Joe Davis, chief global economist and head of Vanguard’s investment strategy group.

High rates have already hit the manufacturing and housing industries. A report Tuesday showed that homebuilders broke ground on fewer new homes in August than economists expected. The 11.3% drop from July’s level was much worse than the 0.8% forecasted. But activity for building permits, a possible indicator of future activity, rose more than expected.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude
CLV23,
-0.82%
lost 10 cents to $91.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 28 cents to $91.20 on Tuesday. It’s climbed roughly 13% this year as oil-producing countries curtail production. Brent crude
BRNX23,
-0.90%,
the international standard, fell 36 cents to $93.98 per barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar
USDJPY,
-0.02%
rose to 147.86 Japanese yen from 147.81 yen.

MarketWatch contributed to this report.