Futures pointed to a slightly lower open for Asian markets on Monday, with traders looking ahead to the Fed’s two-day meeting later in the week.
Australia’s SPI futures traded at 5,639, lower than the ASX 200’s last close at 5,722.84. Nikkei futures in Chicago traded at 20,000 and Osaka futures were at 19,960. The Japanese benchmark index finished at 20,099.75 on Friday.
In the currency market, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, traded at 93.928. The index is hovering near lows not seen since last year.
Elsewhere, the Japanese yen traded at 111.09 to the dollar and the Australian dollar fetched $0.7913.
Ahead of the Fed’s meeting, most analysts don’t expect the U.S. central bank to move on interest rates.
“The (Federal Open Market Committee) can be guaranteed to leave rates on hold on Wednesday, the only question being whether they decide to firm up guidance on when they expect to commence the process of balance sheet shrinkage,” Ray Attrill, head of foreign-exchange strategy at the National Australia Bank, wrote on a Monday note.
In the commodities space, U.S. crude traded near flat at $45.75 a barrel.