US stocks fell for the first time in three days on Wednesday, the S&P 500 losing 0.6 percent, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central bank’s bond-buying programme could end this fall and benchmark interest rates could rise six months later.
US Treasuries also fell on Wednesday while the US dollar rose.
At its monetary policy meeting on Wednesday, the Fed decided to cut its monthly purchases of US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to $55 billion from $65 billion.
Forecasts released by the Fed showed that the majority of Fed policymakers expect its benchmark rate to rise in 2015. However, at a press conference after the meeting on Wednesday, Yellen said that rates will stay lower than normal “for some time” even after the economy recovers.
Meanwhile, in Japan, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said in a speech at a Tokyo symposium on Wednesday that the economy is on track to meet the central bank's 2 percent inflation target as planned.
A report on Wednesday had shown that Japan's trade deficit eased in February as exports rose 9.8 percent from a year earlier following a 9.5 percent increase in January. Imports grew 9.0 percent after surging 25.1 percent the previous month.
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