SYDNEY : Asian stocks and oil prices slipped on Tuesday as the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant rattled investors who were already on edge ahead of a slew of central bank decisions this week, including a key Federal Reserve meeting.China's CSI300 index was also 0.41per cent lower, after health authorities in Tianjin detected mainland the country's first Omicron case.
"We expected to see an acceleration of tapering by the Fed and, of course that bringing forward interest rate increases, so it's going to be interesting to see how the market deals with that," said John Milroy, an adviser at Ord Minnett in Sydney. The Fed is on Wednesday expected to signal a faster wind-down of its US$120 billion a month bond buying programme in a move to fight high inflation, which could move it one step closer to raising interest rates.
The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are also meeting this week, and are each heading toward normalising their own monetary policies. Brent futures fell 83 cents, or 1.10per cent, to be at US$74.32 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was 8 cents, or 0.11per cent, lower at US$71.21.
中國也中招了！