Asian stocks fell on Wednesday after the
US Federal Reserve refrained from offering new initiatives to help a
slowly recovering US economy.
Benchmark oil hovered below $100 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro but slipped against the yen.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 per cent to 8,787.68. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4 per cent at 1,856.46 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.2 per cent to 18,413.79. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose less than 0.1 per cent to 4,196.40.
FULL COVERAGE: Global financial crisis Benchmarks in mainland China, Singapore and Indonesia fell while Taiwan, India and the Philippines rose.
US stocks gave up gains on Tuesday after the Fed released a policy statement that made clear it was not offering any new steps to help the economy.
The Fed said that the US economy, while improving, is still weak. Unemployment remains high, and it remains vulnerable to the European debt crisis, which could push the continent into a recession and slow US growth.
Analysts said markets were disappointed that the Fed refrained from a third round of large-scale purchases of Treasury securities, dubbed quantitative easing III or QE3.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 per cent to close at 11,954.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.9 per cent to 1,225.73. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.3 per cent to 2,579.27.
The Dow dropped more than 70 points in the last hour of trading and had risen as high as 126 points earlier on Tuesday after two strong auctions of European debt.
The Spanish government was able to sell short-term debt at much lower interest rates compared with a month ago, a signal that markets are becoming less fearful about the government's ability to repay its debt.
And in its first sale of short-term bills, the European Financial Stability Fund raised 1.9 billion euros ($2.6 billion).
Still, investor sentiment remained fragile amid threats by Standard & Poor's to downgrade the credit ratings of 15 countries that use the euro because of the region's debt crisis.
Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 23 cents to $99.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.37 to finish at $100.14 an ounce on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3034 from $1.3043 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.95 yen from 77.97 yen.
Special 
