The city of Pudong is being hit by a novel coronavirus outbreak, as a man wears a face mask, in the Shanghai Stock Exchange building.
The global shares hovered at record highs on Wednesday while currency markets and U.S. Treasuries were steady as investors looked at the expected winding down of monetary stimuli in the world's largest economy.
The Federal Reserve is expected to cut off its $120 billion-a month asset purchase programme in its policy statement at 1800 GMT. Asian shares couldn't follow a strong lead from Wall Street during the much anticipated meeting.
Markets are almost certain the Fed will taper, but will see if policymakers give any hints about the possibility of interest rate hikes next year.
Analysts at Westpac said a morning note to clients that the Fed will begin its taper and there was scepticism around how hawkish they will be on the rate increase front.
Federal Reserve officials try to maintain a balance between raising rates to make sure inflation remains contained and giving the economy as much time as possible to restore jobs lost since the pandemic.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.33% in early trading on Thursday. The form of markets in our region may be driven more by what happens to Treasury and dollar markets overnight than what happens locally, according to Rob Carnell, head of ING in a note.
The Australian share index gained 1.3%, while the Australian share index increased by 1.3%. It was compared to the gains of Hong Kong's Hang Seng off 1%, and the KOSPI down 1.2%, even as local fintech Kakao Pay Corp saw its shares double in value from their initial public offering price on their trading debut.
The shares of Chinese were steady because of data showing service sector activity in October.
On Tuesday, MSCI's all- country world index, which tracks equity performance in 50 nations, was closed at a record high, helped by all three major U.S. stock indexes hitting Intraday peaks during the session and a record end from Europe's STOXX 600 index. N EU strong earnings supported shares in Europe and North America.
In contrast to the Asian regional benchmark, it has fallen down since early this year, and is off more than 13% since its February peak, as it is trying to rebound from the changes in China in the summer, which roiled sectors from property to technology.
The moves in the currency markets were muted on Thursday. The dollar kept within its recent highs against the euro and won't reach its new highs.
The Aussie dollar was steady on Wednesday, having dropped 1.2% against the dollar on Tuesday, as the Reserve Bank of Australia abandoned its short-term yield target.
The Bank of England on Thursday could become the first of the world's biggest central banks to raise rates after the coronaviruses crisis.
The US benchmark 10 year Treasury yields were steady at 1.5540%, a little off last month's top of 1.7%.
The price of oil fell on Wednesday due to a big build in oil stocks in the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, and as pressure on OPEC to increase supply. The U.S. crude fell 1% to $83.74 a barrel, while O R Brent crude fell 1.5% to $82.65 a barrel.