singapore stocks in japan were set to drop on wednesday as us stocks fell overnight it came as the world health organization warned that the omicron variant is spreading faster than any previous strain japans nikkei futures contract in chicago was at 28300 while its counterpart in osaka was at 28270 that compared against the nikkei 225s last close at 2843264 in australia the spasx 200 dipped 049 in early trading china is due to release some economic data on wednesday morning including industrial production and retail sales numbers in listings chinese biotech firm beigene is set to debut in shanghais nasdaqstyle board star market the company is already listed in hong kong and the nasdaq in the us us stocks fell on tuesday as some large tech stocks moved lower and new inflation data continued to show a sharp rise in prices the nasdaq composite led the decline falling 114 to 1523764 the sp 500 slid 075 to close at 463409 the dow jones industrial average held up better than its counterparts but still fell 10677 points or 030 to 3554418 the fed will conclude its twoday policy meeting on wednesday later stateside and central bank chair jerome powell is set to speak at a 230 pm et press conference investor sentiment is set to remain cautious after the world health organization on tuesday warned the new covid omicron variant is spreading faster than any previous strain saying that the variant is probably present in most countries of the world meanwhile oil prices dropped after the international energy agency said demand for oil is set to be lower than expected next year hit by the new omicron variant oil prices fell overnight after the international energy agency iea said that oil markets have returned to surplus this month and that surplus will deepen early next year said vivek dhar director of mining and energy commodities research at the commonwealth bank of australia the groups forecast is predicated on weaker demand linked to the omicron variant of covid‑19 as well as stronger oil production from opec the us canada and brazil he wrote in a wednesday note the us dollar index which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers was at 96559 continuing its spike from levels above 963 previously the japanese yen traded at 11374 per dollar as it continued to weaken from levels around 1135