Investing.com - Asian markets were mixed in afternoon trade on Wednesday as investors awaited minutes of the Federal Reserve policy-setting meeting due later today.
Markets are also likely to focus on whether Chairman Jerome Powell would drop clues on future rate policies when he speaks Friday at the Kansas City Fed’s annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.7%, while the Shenzhen Component slid 0.9% by 1:50AM ET (05:50 GMT) after the People’s Bank of China said on Tuesday that it would not resort to strong stimulus to support growth.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.2%. Smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (HK:1810) is set to announce earnings for the first time as a public company on Wednesday. The Hong Kong-listed company saw its share prices fallen 19% from its post-IPO peak in mid-July.
“We don’t think its worth a pure internet company because it’s not the same as Alibaba or Baidu or Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). They can only get a new subscriber by selling a smartphone,” said Mark Newman, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday.
Bloomberg further noted that Xiaomi is now valued at about $50 billion, a significant drop from the $100 billion in 2017. The company raised only $4.7 billion in its IPO last month, less than half of what it sought to raise, according to the article.
Meanwhile, Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, admitted to making illegal payments and committed other crimes to influence the 2016 election.
Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday to eight counts related to tax fraud, excessive campaign contributions, making false statements to a financial institution, and unlawful corporate contributions. While he did not name Trump directly during the hearing, his attorney Lanny Davis said shortly afterward that "Donald Trump directed [Cohen] to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election." The Justice Department confirmed late Tuesday that Trump was the unidentified candidate.
“The White House looks increasingly like a criminal enterprise with the convictions today of President Trump’s former campaign manager and personal lawyer," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said in a statement.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 continued to fall and traded 0.4% lower on Wednesday after a leadership challenge to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday.
"With leadership changes and disunity amongst the major parties having marked Australian politics for a decade now, the disruption is likely to be met negatively by business," ANZ analysts said in a note.
Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.5% and 0.2% respectively in morning trade. Koji Ishida, a former Bank of Japan board member, said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that he believed the country’s healthy economic state should allow the central bank to dial back its massive stimulus program even before it hit the 2% inflation target.