major us stock indexes perked up as investors looked ahead to the federal reserves interestrate decision and fretted about the health of the us economy the sp 500 gained 07 snapping a twosession losing streak the dow jones industrial average advanced 06 while the technologyfocused nasdaq composite rose 08 the indexes opened lower but swung into positive territory as the closing bell approached were afraid that the fed could surprise us with another jumbo hike said florian ielpo head of macro at lombard odier investment managers last weeks corporate warnings he said suggested we very well could be at the entry point of the us recession japanese stocks were higher led by gains in electronics stocks following recent selloffs caused by fears about the feds further aggressive tightening investors were focusing on damage caused by typhoon nanmadol and any geopolitical developments around taiwan the nikkei stock average was 12 higher at 2788895 koreas kospi rose 10 to 237921 tracking wall streets gains overnight ahead of the fomcs twoday meeting that begins later today for this week investors are mostly focused on a round of interestrate decisions by central banks such as the fed and the boe phillip securities research team said in a morning commentary hong kong stocks were higher in morning trade showing signs of recovery from two consecutive sessions of losses as asian equities broadly rise following gains on wall street overnight the benchmark hang seng index was up 10 at 1875158 ig market strategist yeap jun rong said in a note that overnight dipbuying being presented in wall street seems to provide an uplift for risk sentiment in the asia session although a tone of caution still largely lingers ahead of the fomc meeting chinese shares were higher in early trade the benchmark shanghai composite index rose 05 to 313236 the shenzhen composite index gained 09 to 200914 and the chinext price index advanced 10 to 237424 chinas property sector may be on the path of stabilizing with china evergrande looking to restart most of their stalled property construction projects policymakers easing access to credit for property developers and local governments changing rules to make new home purchases more attractive cba strategist vivek dhar said in a note asian currencies were mixed in the asian morning session following overnight usd weakness but may strengthen amid risk appetite spurred by gains in regional equity markets this morning usd weakened monday given market pricing is now tilting toward a 75bp rate increase by the fomc this week as opposed to a 100bp increase said carol kong an analyst at commonwealth bank of australia in a research report however usd will probably keep moving higher as markets continue to downgrade their growth expectations for the global economy kong added usdkrw edged 01 lower to 138909 usdsgd was little changed at 14074 and audusd was down 01 at 06724 gold was trading steadily in the asian early morning session ahead of this weeks fomc meeting gold will eventually resume its role as a safe haven but a peak in usd needs to be put into place and that wont occur for a couple of meetings edward moya senior market analyst at oanda said in an email gold is due for a bounce but even if this happens after the fed decision this week a sustained rebound will only occur if more signs emerge that inflation is easing moya added spot gold was down 01 at 167446oz  oil prices were mixed in the early morning asian session but may be supported by usd weakness the ice usd index is down 03 at 10945 according to factset gains in crude oil prices were also being supported by the lifting of covid19 lockdowns in both chengdu and dalian on monday anz research analysts said in a research report quoting a media report frontmonth wti crude oil futures were 03 higher at 8601bbl brent crude oil futures were 01 lower at 9193bbl