• Asian stocks are set to follow US declines as Wall Street slumped the most since September amid disappointing earnings reports and the Federal Reserve pushing back on interest rate cut expectations.
• Speaking after the January Fed decision, Powell said he doesn’t think it’s likely the central bank will ease policy in March. In a sign that officials are not in a hurry to lower rates, the central bank also said it “does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.”
• Shares in Australia slipped, while Japan and mainland China all point to declines of more than 1% at the open after the S&P 500 fell 1.6%. Losses on Wall Street were led by big tech as Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. slumped after disappointing investors betting that an artificial-intelligence bonanza would quickly fuel results.