HONG KONG - Most stocks fell in Asia on Tuesday as investors grow nervous about the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates next year following an expected cut this week.
With traders fully confident of a reduction on Wednesday, observers said they would be keeping a close eye on the central bank's so-called "dot plot" of projections for monetary policy.
They will also be poring over its post-meeting statement and boss Jerome Powell's news conference, looking for clues about the debate taking place among decision-makers.
Bets on a third successive cut -- and more in 2026 -- have surged on the back of data pointing to a weakening jobs market, which has offset concerns about stubbornly high inflation.
That optimism was boosted last month by reports that President Donald Trump's top economic aide Kevin Hassett -- a proponent of more cuts -- was the frontrunner to take the Fed's helm when Powell's term ends.
However, the excitement has calmed in recent days and Bloomberg reported that markets are pricing two more reductions next year, down from the three expected last week.
After a pullback in all three main indexes on Wall Street, Asian markets also struggled.
Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Wellington, Taipei and Manila were all down, though there were gains in Tokyo, Singapore and Jakarta.
Regional chip-makers were mixed after Trump said he had reached an agreement with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to allow US chip giant Nvidia to export advanced artificial intelligence chips to China.
The announcement marks a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Trump's predecessor Joe Biden had heavily restricted over national security concerns.
Biden's administration required chip companies to create modified, less powerful versions specifically for the Chinese market.
Tokyo-listed Renesas rose more than two percent and Advantest put on almost one percent, while tech investment titan SoftBank was also in positive territory.
But in Seoul, Samsung fell more than one percent and rival SK hynix was off nearly two percent. TSMC was down one percent in Taipei.