Stocks are mixed in Asia as investors focus on the Federal Reserve policy meeting that ends Wednesday. Shares rose in Hong Kong and Tokyo but fell in Seoul and Sydney.
Shanghai was little changed. The Fed is expected to keep its extremely supportive policy stance unchanged given the slow progress in vanquishing the pandemic, analysts said.
Markets have meandered since last week as investors weighed solid corporate earnings results against renewed worries that troubles with COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and the spread of new variants of coronavirus might delay a recovery from the pandemic.
With the virus spreading like “wildfire" in parts of the world, the first half of the year might be “lost," Stephen Innes of Axi said in a commentary. “