Asian stock indices varied on Tuesday as Wall Street remained near record levels, with traders awaiting new signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve regarding interest rates. The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.2% to 43,579.50 points, affected by a decline in SoftBank shares after its announcement of acquiring a $2 billion stake in U.S. chipmaker Intel. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong dropped 0.2% to 25,125.17 points, while the Shanghai Composite rose slightly by less than 0.1% to 3,730.71 points. The Australian S&P/ASX 200 index declined 0.7% to 8,894.90 points, and South Korea’s Kospi index fell 1% to 3,145.82 points. Taiwan’s Taiex index decreased by 0.5%, while India’s Sensex rose by 0.3%, and Thailand’s SET index increased by 0.3%. This week will see new data releases from the Fed chair and some of the largest U.S. retailers. On Monday, U.S.

stock indices showed mixed results, with the S&P 500 slightly down by less than 0.1% to close at 6,449.15 points after three consecutive days of record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 43,533.86 points, while the Nasdaq Composite rose by less than 0.1% to 21,629.77 points. In energy markets on Tuesday morning, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude fell 44 cents to $62.26 per barrel, and Brent crude dropped 42 cents to $66.18 per barrel. In currency markets, the U.S. dollar weakened against the Japanese yen to 147.61 yen from 147.88 yen, while the euro remained stable at $1.1663.