China's Stocks Fall And Japan Rallies

The minutes showed that the Fed is planning to taper its $85 billion monthly asset purchase program "in coming months." And that the FOMC sees "several significant risks," to the economy in the future.

Chinese stocks were down ahead of the HSBC Flash PMI reading that showed that manufacturing hit a two-month low.

Japanese stocks are however up as the yen weakened against the greenback.

Here's a look at how the markets are doing:

• The Shanghai Composite is down 0.9%
• Hong Kong's Hang Send is down 0.6%
• Japan's Nikkei is up 1.6%
• Australia's S&P/ASX 200 is down 0.25%
• Korea's KOSPI is down 1.05%