SINGAPORE — Asia-Pacific markets were set to trade lower on Monday as investors looked ahead to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting this week.

Australia is home to the ASX 200Early trade saw a 0.9% drop in the energy, materials and financial subindexes. Most sectors traded lower. As major banks, miners, and oil stocks were sold, the energy, material, and financial subindices dropped 0.98% and 2.17%, respectively.

NikkeiFutures indicated a lower open in Japan where the benchmark index ended at 27522.26.

Global stocks fell last Friday. Stocks fell globally, with the Nasdaq Composite, a tech-heavy stock exchange, posting a 7.6% drop for the week. It was its worst loss since October 2020. Also, it is more than 14% lower than the record November close.

Federal Open Market Committee due to meetThe next steps in U.S. Monetary Policy will be decided on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Inflation is an important concern for the U.S. central banking. investors will listen closely to hear how worried the Fed actually is — Chairman Jerome PowellAfter the FOMC has released its statement, Wednesday afternoon at local time, we will brief media.

“Markets are trading cautiously ahead to this week’s FOMC Statement, which is expected be hawkish. This could potentially outline the case of interest rate hikes starting March,” ANZ Research analysts noted in a Monday morning Note.

According to them, it is unlikely that the Fed would stop quantitative easing by this week.

“We also don’t believe that the Fed would tighten their policy with a rate increase of 50bps. The ANZ analysts suggested that markets may stabilize if Fed policy isn’t as hawkish than some worst-case fears would suggest.

On the currency exchange, there are U.S. dollarThe price of the basket of peers was 95.636, which is close to its flat trading value.

It Japanese yenThe dollar traded at 113.74, a rise from 114.8 the week before. This is The Australian dollarThe $0.7183 was unchanged.

Oil prices rose Monday during Asian trading hours: U.S. crudeStocks were up 0.7% to $85.71 per barrel

U.S. crude was up for five weeks straight last week. Global benchmark Brent gained almost 2%. Reuters reported. Due to shortage concerns, prices rose more than 10%