Investing.com - Asian shares were narrowly mixed on Tuesday with investors looking ahead to the start of the Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting.
The Shanghai Composite eased 0.85%, despite another signal from the central bank on easy policy via a cut to the seven-day repo.
Thew S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.07%, while the Nikkei 225 eased the same amount.
The Federal Open Market Committee's two-day October meeting begins on Tuesday.
Investors were hesitant to make any major moves in Monday's session ahead of the FOMC's monetary policy meeting later this week. While the FOMC has hinted that it will likely hold short-term interest rates at its current near-zero level at the meeting, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen has still not ruled out a possible rate hike. The FOMC has left its benchmark Federal Funds Rate at its current level between zero and 0.25% for 55 consecutive meetings.
Yellen has indicated that the FOMC will take a "data-driven approach," to its decision as it weighs whether to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The U.S. Department of Labor, meanwhile, will release two additional U.S. national employment reports before the FOMC's December meeting providing the Fed with enough data on the state of the U.S. labor market to help guide their decision.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department will release advance estimates for U.S. GDP for the third quarter, one day before it issues a report on Personal Income and Outlays for the month of September. Core PCE inflation, the Fed's preferred gauge for price growth, inched up 0.1 to 1.3% in August. The reading remains far below the Fed's target of 2% for long-term inflation.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were mixed on Monday ahead of the start of the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting, as a sell-off in Apple (O:O:AAPL) shares and energy stocks weighed on the major indices.
Shares in Apple slumped more than 3% in Monday's session, after one of its top chip suppliers for its iPhone and iPad products posted worse than expected revenues for the third quarter. Dialog Semiconductors saw its third quarter sales increase by 18%, one quarter after its revenues surged by nearly 45%. Apple will report its third-quarter results on Tuesday after the close of trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Composite index fell mildly on Monday, halting a massive two-day rally. The NASDAQ Composite index, meanwhile, inched up amid a rebound in Health Care and Pharmaceutical stocks. The Dow lost 23.65 or 0.13% to 17,623.05, while the NASDAQ added 2.84 or 0.06% to close Monday's session at 2,071.18. On the S&P 500, six of 10 sectors closed in the red, as the index fell 3.97 or 0.19% to close at 2,071.18. Stocks in the Consumer Services and Health Care industries led, while stocks in the Energy, Basic Material and Technology sectors lagged.