The Hong Kong stock market has ticked lower in consecutive trading days, giving away more than 60 points or 0.2 percent along the way. The Hang Seng Index now rests just above the 26,435-point plateau and it's tipped to open in the red again on Wednesday.
The global forecast for the Asian markets is flat ahead of the FOMC statement later today - with a hint of downside on trade concerns. The European and U.S. markets were slightly lower and the Asian markets are tipped to open in similar fashion.
The Hang Seng finished slightly lower on Tuesday following losses from the oil companies, properties and casinos.
For the day, the index lost 58.11 points or 0.22 percent to finish at 26,436.62 after trading between 26,355.53 and 26,527.09.
Among the actives, China Mengniu Dairy plummeted 1.29 percent, while Techtronic Industries plunged 0.91 percent, CITIC tumbled 0.90 percent, Sands China skidded 0.68 percent, Galaxy Entertainment sank 0.67 percent, AAC Technologies dropped 0.65 percent, Power Assets shed 0.63 percent, China Life Insurance advanced 0.50 percent, WH Group shed 0.38 percent, CNOOC lost 0.35 percent, AIA Group fell 0.26 percent, China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec) slid 0.23 percent, New World Development dipped 0.20 percent, Tencent Holdings and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China both collected 0.18 percent, CSPC Pharmaceutical eased 0.12 percent and BOC Hong Kong, Hong Kong & China Gas, China Mobile, Ping An Insurance and China Resources Land all were unchanged.
The lead from Wall Street is slightly negative as stocks showed a lack of direction again on Tuesday, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before ending slightly lower.
The Dow shed 27.88 points or 0.10 percent to 27,881.72, while the NASDAQ lost 5.64 points or 0.07 percent to 8,616.18 and the S&P 500 fell 3.44 points or 0.11 percent to 3,132.52.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as House Democrats announcing an agreement on President Donald Trump's trade deal with Canada and Mexico. The deal will allow the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) - Trump's replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - to move forward.
That follows conflicting reports regarding trade talks between the U.S. and China with expectations the U.S. may delay imposing more tariffs on Chinese goods. However, a deal is unlikely to be completed this week, reports said.
Traders also were reluctant to make moves ahead of the Fed's monetary policy announcement later today. The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, although traders will pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates.
Crude oil futures ended higher on Tuesday despite lingering concerns about the outlook for energy demand due to global economic slowdown. West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures for January ended up $0.22 or 0.4 percent at $59.24 a barrel.
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