Asian stocks moved little during the early trading hours on Monday as investors cautiously await several interest rate decisions this week. Policymakers in the US, Europe, China and Japan have meetings arranged this week. 

Market participants expect the Fed to keep the rate hike on pause after the conclusion of its two-day monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. In contrast, the European Central Bank may hike its benchmark rate on Thursday.  

Media reports suggest that the Bank of Japan might keep policy rates unchanged as inflation increases, with China possibly reducing its medium-term lending facility on the same day.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 and TOPIX opened higher, trading just below 33-year peaks. Nikkei rose 0.34%, while Topix was 0.5% higher. 

Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex 30 indexes were up 0.2% in early trade after the Reserve Bank kept interest rates steady, and markets await a reading on Indian consumer inflation due later in the day.

Most other Asian stocks were trading lower as investors hunkered down before more cues on U.S. monetary policy.

The Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indexes in China lost 0.12% and 0.28%, respectively, extending losses from the previous week, as traders questioned the breadth of the country’s economic rebound this year. 

South Korea’s KOSPI slid 0.5%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lowered close to 0.6% over weakness in locally-listed stocks. Australian markets were closed for a holiday. 

Prices of oil benchmarks edged lower for the second-straight week, as economic data of the world’s largest crude importer, China, shows concern over demand growth. The supply of Russian crude is also increasing, offsetting the production cut of 1 million barrels per day by Saudi Arabia starting in July. 

Brent crude futures traded 1.34% lower at $73.78 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude also fell 1.40% to $69.19 a barrel.