Asian markets down on stimulus fear: 10 things to know before opening bell

Global cues:

Asian stock markets were treading water on Wednesday after upbeat US data fanned speculation the Federal Reserve could start slowing its asset buying as early as next month – depressing bond prices and lifting the dollar.The air of caution was clear in MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan which ticked down 0.2 percent. Australia’s main index dipped 0.3 percent while the Nikkei eased 0.2 percent.

The Dow and the S&P 500 ended lower on Tuesday following two sessions of gains as investors weighed the implications of strong economic data for the path of monetary policy over the next several months.After the closing bell, Tesla Motors Inc reported a stronger-than-expected third-quarter profit, but offered a fourth-quarter outlook that fell short of Wall Street estimates.

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The US dollar maintained a bid tone early in Asia on Wednesday after an upbeat US report kept alive some expectations the Federal Reserve might scale back stimulus as soon as next month, while strong domestic jobs data lifted the New Zealand dollar.

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Service industries in the US unexpectedly accelerated in October. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index increased to 55.4 from 54.4 in September, better than economists’ expectation of 54.

Gold was struggling to shake off its longest losing streak in nearly six months as doubts persisted over when the U.S. Federal Reserve would begin scaling back its stimulus measures.The metal has lost about 3 percent since October 28 and has logged its longest losing run since mid-May, when it dropped 8 percent in seven days. Analysts believe gold could break below the $1,300 mark ahead of the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

Business/Stock news:

IT services firm Cognizant Technology Solutions Corpreported a better-than-expected 22 percent rise in revenue, helped by contracts from insurers setting up online exchanges as part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms.Cognizant’s shares rose as much as 4 percent to a life high of $90.70 in early trading on Tuesday.

Crisis-ridden bourse NSEL defaulted for the 12th straight timeon Tuesdayas it could pay only Rs 11 crore to investors against a scheduled payment amount of Rs 174.72 crore. With today’s pay-out, NSEL settled about Rs 220 crore against Rs 5,600 crore dues to 13,000 investors.

TheEMIs for home, car and even personal loans are likely to go upas both private sector lender HDFC Bank and public lender State Bank of India have increased their minimum lending rate by 20 basis points to 10 percent.

Economy news:

Indian services firms recovered slightly last month from the worst slump in over four years in September but activity still shrank and a shortage of new orders means a rebound looks some way off, a survey showed on Tuesday.The HSBC Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, rose to 47.1 last month from 44.6 in September, which was the weakest reading since April 2009.

Plan panel Deputy ChairmanMontek Singh Ahluwaliasaid the worst is probably over for the economy and hoped that the performance would be better in the second half of this fiscal. “The core sector performance does give some sign… the demand on the part of industry is not so strong, so I would say that clearly the economy has bottomed out, but we don’t have strong enough signal yet of recovery. But I am hopeful that the second half of the fiscal would be better,” Ahluwalia told reporters here atShiv Nadar Foundationfunction.