Australia

Australian shares are set to open lower, after Wall Street lost ground led by declines in technology stocks.

ASX futures were slightly down 0.1% or 10 points as of 8:30am on Wednesday, suggesting a lower open.

Losses by technology giants pushed U.S. stock indexes sharply lower as traders take some profits ahead of congressional testimony from Fed Chair Powell and Friday's payroll report for February.

DJIA fell 404 points, or 1%, to 38585, the S&P 500 lost 1% to 5078 and the Nasdaq slid 1.7% to 15939.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was down 0.9% to US$82.05 a barrel, while gold was up 0.7% at US$2,129.12.

In local bond markets, the yield on Australian 2 Year government bonds was unchanged at 3.77% while the 10 Year yield was down at 4.09%. US Treasury notes were own, with the 2 Year yield at 4.55% and the 10 Year yield at 4.14%.

The Australian dollar hit 65.04 US cents down from its previous close of 65.08. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the US dollar against 16 other currencies, was down at 98.43.

Asia

Chinese shares closed mixed as investors digested the country's 2024 growth targets set at the NPC meeting. While economists reckon the targets are largely in line with expectations, more stimulus is required to achieve the ambitious 5% GDP growth target. Bank stocks led gains, with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China rising 2.6% and Agricultural Bank of China up 2.4%. Software and pharmaceutical shares weighed on the market. Shanghai Baosight Software was down 1.0% and WuXi AppTec fell 2.95%. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.3% higher at 3047.79, the Shenzhen Composite Index was 0.6% lower and the ChiNext Price Index was down 0.1%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 2.6% to close at 16162.64, logging its sharpest one-day drop since January as traders digested announcements from China's NPC meeting earlier. Investors seem skeptical about China's ability to hit ambitious economic targets, Ken Cheung, chief Asian FX strategist at Mizuho Bank, says in an email, including GDP growth of around 5% for 2024. Among the decliners, JD Health International slumped 8.1%, Alibaba Health Information Technology lost 7.95% and Sino Biopharmaceutical shed 7.6%. The Hang Seng Tech Index closed 4.3% lower while the Hang Seng Properties Index lost 2.6%.

The Nikkei Stock Average closed flat at 40097.63 as losses in pharmaceutical and real-estate stocks offset gains in construction and financial stocks. Ono Pharmaceutical fell 3.9% and Sumitomo Realty & Development dropped 2.8%. Meanwhile, Obayashi surged 21% after it increased its fiscal-year dividend forecast and raised its mid-term return goals. Broader market index Topix rose 0.5% to 2719.93. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield fell 1.5 bps to 0.695%. Investors are focusing on economic data and U.S. primary elections.

India's benchmark Sensex fell 0.3% to close at 73677.13, as investors pocketed gains after three straight sessions of gains. In focus this week are Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's congressional testimony, a European Central Bank decision and U.S. jobs data. Decliners included Bajaj Finserv, which fell 4.3%; Infosys, which shed 1.9%; and Tata Consultancy Services, which slipped 1.7%. Meanwhile, Tata Motors was up 3.5% after the Indian automaker said Monday that it would split into two listed entities.

Europe

European stocks were mostly lower, with the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index down 0.2% at 496.27, pulling away from recent record highs on caution ahead of key events, including Thursday's European Central Bank policy decision. Testimony on Wednesday and Thursday by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Friday's U.S. monthly jobs data will also be closely scrutinised as investors look for clues for when central banks could start cutting interest rates. Germany's DAX index fell 0.1% and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.3%.

The FTSE 100 closed up 0.07% ahead of Wednesday's U.K. spring budget announcement and Thursday's European Central Bank policy decision as gold and cryptocurrency hit records highs. "The rally in both the precious metal and cryptocurrency, which kicked off last week when Fed Governor Waller talked of a strategy shift toward reducing central bank's mortgage-backed securities holdings to zero, gathered momentum as investors bought gold and U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs," IG analyst Axel Rudolph said in a note. The day's biggest risers were Intertek--which reported a rise in pretax profit and strong revenue growth--up 6.15%, Endeavour Mining, up 4.2%, and Marks & Spencer, up 3.8%. The session's biggest fallers were Ashtead--which reported a worse-than-expected pretax profit fall for its fiscal third quarter and narrowed guidance--RS Group and Antofagasta, down 9.4%, 3.5% and 3.3% respectively.

North America

Losses by technology giants pushed U.S. stock indexes sharply lower as traders take some profits ahead of congressional testimony from Fed Chair Powell and Friday's payroll report for February.

DJIA fell 404 points, or 1%, to 38585, the S&P 500 lost 1% to 5078 and the Nasdaq slid 1.7% to 15939.

Microsoft dropped 3%, it's biggest decline since October, while Apple slides 2.8% extending its losing streak to five days. Target bucked to downtrend, jumping 12% after reporting stronger-than-expected profits in the holiday quarter.

Gold prices extended gains, closing at a record for the second straight session, while bitcoin hit a new record for the first time since late 2021.