Asian Markets Await Nvidia's Quarterly Report as Stocks Rally Takes a Breather

According to Yahoo News, a rally in stocks took a breather ahead of Wednesday's session in Asia as U.S. investors mostly shrugged off minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting. With the path of interest rates foremost in investors' minds, the market was keen for any clues into thinking at the U.S. central bank. Minutes released on Tuesday showed that Fed officials agreed at their last meeting they could take a cautious approach to raising rates moving forward, and would only need to increase them if incoming information showed insufficient progress in lowering inflation. Still, major U.S. equity indexes ended lower on the day. The S&P 500 ended down 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.6% as both indexes snapped five-day winning streaks. Despite the day's declines, stocks have soared in November, with the S&P 500 and MSCI's all country index both up over 8% this month. The next immediate focus was on Nvidia. Reaction to the U.S. chip heavyweight's quarterly report, out on Tuesday after the close of U.S. markets, was potentially set to ripple through markets globally, as well as through Asia's semiconductor industry. Nvidia is at the heart of the fervor over artificial intelligence in markets this year. Its shares have been one of the Magnificent Seven megacap stocks whose massive gains have propelled equity indexes higher this year, with Nvidia hitting a record high this week ahead of its results.