us stocks traded lower as investors digested minutes from the federal reserves recent policy meeting for clues about plans to wean markets off pandemicera stimulus measures the sp 500 dropped 12 a day after the broad index pulled back from a record high as technology shares fell the techheavy nasdaq composite index fell 25 while the bluechip dow jones industrial average  which set its own record tuesday  lost 06 we expect growth to deflate as we go through the year that will happen naturally as the monetary fiscal support fades markets will have to stand on their own two feet said hani redha a portfolio manager at pinebridge investments its not a disaster but it is a headwind at the same time that central banks are on the move japanese stocks were lower early on dragged by falls in electronics stocks as prospects increase for the us central bank to raise interest rates sooner investors were focusing on covid19 infection trends and the governments response as local media reported that the government is considering measures to limit restaurants operating hours in the okinawa hiroshima and yamaguchi prefectures the nikkei stock average was down 17 at 2882407 south koreas kospi was 06 lower at 293603 in early trade dragged by tech and chemical stocks wall streets fall overnight and the feds release of minutes from its recent policy meetingwhich highlighted inflation concernswere weighing on investor sentiment growing riskoff sentiment sent usdkrw to a near threemonth intraday high sapping investors appetite for local equities the pair was at 120140 versus 119690 late wednesday hong kongs hang seng index slipped 06 to 2276221 after swinging moderately between gains and losses in early trade traditional economy stocks were likely to be supported by chinese premier li keqiang on wednesday stressing the need to strengthen crosscyclical adjustments and intensify implementation of tax and fee cuts kgi research said referring to media reports chinese stocks fell in morning trade as the market continued to track down in the new year the decline also followed broad losses in regional asian equities after the feds latest meeting minutes indicated it may raise interest rates faster than expected the benchmark shanghai composite index shed 02 to 358778 while the shenzhen composite index was also down 02 at 247807 the chinext price index a measure for emerging industries and startups dropped 07 to 313844 central china securities thinks the market is likely to oscillate around current levels in the near term as investors are expected to stay on the sidelines and monitor for more signals jpy strengthened against g10 and asian currencies amid riskoff sentiment caused by losses on wall street and in most regional equity markets market participants have been caught by surprise by a much more hawkish tone from the fomc minutes than what many had expected ig said a shrinking balance sheet and aggressive rate increases indicated by the minutes may have driven concerns over some capping of economic momentum ahead ig added usdjpy fell 02 to 11588 audjpy dropped 05 to 8346 and sgdjpy was down 02 at 8538 gold was trading steadily in the asian morning session but may resume its recent weakness on concerns over the feds upcoming interestrate upcycle the more hawkishthanexpected fomc minutes have further dimmed the appeal of gold ocbc said adding that it expected more selling pressure ahead as the us central bank embarks on its rate normalization path spot gold was little changed at 180894oz oil fell in the asian morning session after the energy information administration on wednesday reported that us crude inventories dropped by a smallerthanexpected 21 million barrels for the week ended dec 31 however energy traders are growing optimistic that once the omicron covid19 variant wave passes a massive pickup in air travel will keep supporting the outlook for crude demand oanda said frontmonth wti crude oil futures were 10 lower at 7705bbl frontmonth brent crude oil futures were down 12 at 7984bbl