Stocks pullback as investors await Fed minutes

Tuesday saw a little decline in Asian markets and a hold in the dollar as investors await the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting to determine when and how much interest rate reduction would occur this year.

Gold retreated from its all-time high on Monday, while crude oil fell as investors became more concerned that US interest rates will remain high for some time despite recent inflationary pressures being moderated by Fed officials.

The Fed's rate reductions this year are presently valued by the markets at around 41 basis points, with a quarter-point drop completely priced in for November.

After three months of positive surprises at the beginning of the year, data earlier this month indicated that consumer price pressures had moderated in April. This led traders to hurry to restore softening bets.

Despite the fact that the discussions precede last week's weaker CPI figure, the minutes of the most recent Fed meeting, which are forthcoming on Wednesday, may offer insightful information about the future course of policy.

The Hang Seng's 1.9% decline from Monday's multi-month high contributed to the 0.9% decline in MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific equities outside of Japan.

The Nasdaq's overnight advances were followed by Japan's tech-heavy Nikkei, which reached a new high before turning around and falling 0.1%.

Regarding gold, the metal fell to about $2,417 an ounce overnight after briefly testing the $2,450 mark.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)