Asian markets already inched higher on Thursday’s opening bell after the released minutes showed the Federal Reserve is planning to reduce its immense $4.5 trillion balance sheet before 2017 concludes. Investors are focusing on the upcoming OPEC meeting.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was 0.06 percent higher. The Aussie S&P/ASX 200 was slightly lower by 0.03 percent on the day. South Korean benchmark Kospi index added more than 0.33 percent in early trade. Also on the prior country, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) supplier SK Hynix said their chip business would revolve into a separate company. SK Hynix gained more than 0.54 percent in shares. Meanwhile markets in Indonesia are shut due to public holiday.
Asian markets are also likely to keep an eye on the much awaited OPEC gathering held in Vienna. The largest oil producers are projected to favor the extension of the deal, and likely to deepen it. The reduction of the output is in an effort to stabilize oil markets, which is currently bloated.
Fed’s unwinding
Yesterday, minutes were released showing that the Federal Reserve will utilize a system that will limit how much it would roll off per month regardless of investing again. This is to scale down its current $4.5 trillion balance sheet.
Members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) pointed out in the committee that it would be practical because of the Fed’s expectations of a future inflation. This is ahead when the Fed indicated that an interest rate hike will happen momentarily. The path for rates after the possible hike next month was doubtful due to Fed’s outlook, National Australia Bank’s economist Tapas Strickland noted.