Asia Stocks Set for Muted Start With Focus on Fed: Markets Wrap

• Muted trading expected amid holidays across the region
• U.S. stocks saw choppy trading Friday; Dollar holds gains

Asian stocks looked set for a muted start to the week as investors prepare for a key Federal Reserve meeting.

Futures pointed to modest gains in Japan. Trading volumes are expected to be light with a number of holidays in the region including in Australia, China and Hong Kong. U.S. futures were steady after stocks staged a late rally Friday, closing at another record after a choppy day of trading. Ten-year Treasury yields inchedup toaround 1.45% on Friday after hitting three-month lows on Thursday, but still notched their biggest weekly slide since December.

The dollar was steady against Group-of-10 peers during early Asia trading in the wake of a Group-of-Seven leadership meeting that emphasized unity.

With Treasury yields on the retreat, investors are anticipating the Fed will reaffirm that its ultra-loose policy remains appropriate, and that it’s too soon to start even contemplating tapering bond purchases. Still, officials could project interest-rate liftoff in 2023 amid faster economic growth and inflation,according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

“The FOMC continues to see the jump in inflation as transitory, and may acknowledge, even at the margin, that they are discussing the pace of monthly purchases but won’t yet commit to a date for slowing the purchases,” said Prudential Financial Inc. strategist Quincy Krosby in emailed comments.

Elsewhere, Bitcoin jumped after Elon Musk said Tesla would resume transactions with the cryptocurrency when mining it is done with more clean energy.

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These are some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures rose 0.1% as of 8:15 a.m. in Tokyo. The benchmark climbed 0.2% to a record high Friday.
• Nikkei 225 futures gained 0.3%.

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was steady.
• The euro was little changed at $1.2109.
• The British pound was up 0.1% at $1.4116.
• The Japanese yen gained 0.1% to 109.72 per dollar.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points to 1.45% Friday.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 01.% to $70.98 per barrel.
• Gold fell 0.2% to $1,874.80 an ounce.