Asian Stocks Lower after Fed Meeting

Asian stocks fell, trimming the best two-month rally since the start of 2012, and gold declined as the Federal Reserve fueled speculation it will begin tapering stimulus in coming months. Australia’s dollar rose while U.S. equity-index futures dropped.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index decreased 0.3 percent as of 12:48 p.m. in Tokyo. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.2 percent as Starbucks Corp. forecast fiscal 2014 profit that trailed estimates. Gold declined 0.4 percent while silver slid 1.5 percent and copper snapped five days of gains to fall 0.5 percent. The Aussie rose 0.1 percent as a report showed building approvals in September grew five times faster than economists had forecast.

The Fed said the economy shows signs of “underlying strength,” even as it maintained $85 billion in monthly bond purchases yesterday while waiting to see more evidence of sustainable improvement. Reports today may show Americans filed fewer jobless claims last week and Europe’s unemployment rate held at 12 percent in September. Soured loans at China’s four biggest banks rose last quarter by the most since at least 2010.

Bloomberg

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