Asian stock markets lower on disappointing US Fed data

Asian stock markets have dropped after the US Federal Reserve issued a weaker economic forecast for the world's largest economy, cooling investor sentiment. The Fed said Wednesday that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy, will grow between 3 percent and 3.5 percent this year, down slightly from its forecast in April. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 1.1 percent in Thursday afternoon trading. South Korea's Kospi was down 0.3 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6 percent. The Hang Seng was down 0.3 percent and the Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.2 percent. In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrials rose just .04 percent to 10,366.72, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.02 percent to 1,095.17.