• Equities look set to retreat in Asia as Treasuries and the dollar strengthened ahead of the Federal Reserve’s key inflation metric due Thursday that will help identify the path forward for interest rates.
• Australian shares and equity futures for benchmarks in Japan and Hong Kong were all lower in early Asian trading after small losses for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 on Wednesday.
• Declines for US stocks came as data showed strong consumer spending despite a small revision to US gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter of 2023. The report comes ahead of the Fed’s favored inflation gauge due Thursday and was broadly supportive of the caution voiced by Fed officials in recent weeks.