Asian shares retreat after bumpy day on Wall Street

Shares fell in Asia on Tuesday after a choppy session on Wall Street yielded mixed results as market struggled to find direction. Hong Kong led or regional markets lower, dropping 1.9% to 29,587.91. Markets in Australia and India were closed for holidays. Trers are keeping a wary eye on rising coronavirus infections in various countries and a bumpy rollout of vaccinations in US. Markets also are awaiting a meeting of Federal Reserve which ends Wednesday. Investors are still jittery over still-raging pandemic, delayed COVID-19 vaccine rollouts in some places and Washington's ability to deliver stimulus to blunt resulting ecomic pain.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index declined 0.6% to 28,641.13, while Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.3% to 3,575.89. South Korea's Kospi lost 1.5% to 3,160.93. Stocks swerved to a mixed finish on Wall Street on Monday, ahe of a deluge of corporate earnings reports scheduled to arrive this week.

S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 3,855.36 as gains for influential Big Tech stocks offset losses for most companies. Dow Jones Industrial Aver dipped 0.1% to 30,960.00. Nasdaq composite, which is packed with tech stocks, rose 0.7% to 13,635.99 and ar record.

Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks fell 0.3%, to 2,163.27. yield on 10-year Treasury sank to 1.03% from 1.07% late Friday. Besides Apple, more than 100 companies in S&P 500 are scheduled to tell investors this week how y fared during last three months of 2020. y include American Express, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, AT&T and Tesla. As a whole, analysts expect S&P 500 companies to say ir fourth-quarter profit fell 5% from a year earlier. That's a milder drop than 9.4% y were forecasting earlier this month, according to FactSet.

President Joe Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion plan to send $1,400 to most Americans and deliver or support for ecomy. But his party holds only slimmest possible majority in Senate, raising doubts about how much can be approved. Several Republicans have alrey voiced opposition to parts of plan.

coronavirus pandemic is also worsening and doing more dam by day. A UN ncy said Monday that four times as many jobs were lost last year as in 2009, during global financial crisis. Federal Reserve will begin a two-day meeting on interest-rate policy Tuesday, and wide expectation is for it to keep accelerator floored on its stimulus for ecomy and markets. It has said it plans to keep interest rates low even if inflation rises above its 2% target.

In or Tuesday tring, US benchmark crude oil lost 27 cents to $52.50 per barrel in electronic tring on New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 50 cents to $52.77 per barrel on Monday. Brent crude, international standard, shed 37 cents to $55.31 per barrel. U.S. dollar slipped to 103.69 Japanese yen from 103.76 yen late Monday. euro rose to $1.2146 from $1.2141.