Asian stocks retreating as Fed on hold, Nikkei back into ¥22,300.00

• The Pacific market sector is in full retreat for Friday as the US Fed holds off on rate hikes for now.
• China’s CPI reading managed to disappoint despite coming in at expectations, worsening the day’s mood.

Asian stocks got pushed back into retreat after the US Federal Reserve held steady on interest rates in advance of December’s widely-expected rate increase, and global equities have rolled over to expose their underbellies heading through Friday’s action.

US mid-term elections held this week sparked a bullish run in broader equity indexes, but an on-hold Fed has soured the buying mood, with Chinese indexes seeing extended declines in early Friday trading after China’s CPI reading for Friday morning barely scraped in at expectations, indicating a worsening decline in the Chinese domestic economy.

The MSCI broad Asia-Pacific index is in the green for the day after struggling in the early hours, up 0.66%,   while Australia’s ASX 200 is softly down around -0.11%.

Japan’s major bourses are in decline mode as well, with the Nikkei 225 retracting 0.85% and the Tokyo Topix index sits back -0.40%, while Chinese equities are falling once more, with the Shanghai CSI 300 in the red for -1.14% and the Hong Kong Hang Seng index in freefall for -2.24%.

Nikkei 225 Technical Levels