Little Movement Expected For South Korea Shares

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day winning streak in which it had climbed more than 125 points or 3 percent. The KOSPI now sits just above the 4,140-point plateau and it's likely to remain in that neighborhood again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets suggests little movement ahead of the FOMC rate decision later today. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and little changed and the Asian bourses are expected to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Tuesday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index fell 11.30 points or 0.27 percent to finish at 4,143.55 after trading between 4,121.21 and 4,152.18. Volume was 397.3 million shares worth 13.2 trillion won. There were 473 decliners and 401 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial fell 0.27 , while KB Financial declined 1.49 percent, Hana Financial slumped 1.06 percent, Samsung Electronics skidded 1.00 percent, Samsung SDI contracted 1.27 percent, LG Electronics dropped 1.65 percent, SK Hynix tumbled 1.91 percent, Naver shed 0.40 percent, LG Chem surrendered 1.81 percent, Lotte Chemical perked 0.14 percent, SK Innovation eased 0.17 percent, POSCO Holdings stumbled 1.25 percent, SK Telecom rose 0.19 percent, KEPCO sank 1.74 percent, Hyundai Mobis lost 0.97 percent, Hyundai Motor tanked 2.69 percent and Kia Motors retreated 1.43 percent.

The lead from Wall Street provides little clarity as the major averages opened mixed and fairly flat and stayed that way through the session.

The Dow dropped 179.03 points or 0.38 percent to finish at 47,560.29, while the NASDAQ rose 30.58 points or 0.13 percent to close at 23,576.49 and the S&P 500 eased 6.00 points or 0.09 percent to end at 6,840.51.

Traders were reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement later today. While the Fed is widely expected to lower interest rates by another quarter point, there is considerable uncertainty about the longer-term outlook for rates.

Traders are likely to pay close attention to the wording of the Fed's accompanying statement as well as Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting press conference for clues about the likelihood of further rate cuts.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department said job openings in the U.S. edged slightly higher in October.

Crude oil prices slumped on Tuesday as Iraq resumed crude flow from Lukoil's West Qurna oil fields while the U.S. dollar gained ground after job data from the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery was down $0.66 or 1.12 percent at $58.22 per barrel.

Closer to home, South Korea will provide November data for unemployment later this morning; in October, the jobless rate was 2.6 percent.