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Adani completes $2.5 billion share sale. Fed seen pausing rate hikes in coming months. Japan's Covid deaths hit record high. Here's what you need to know to today.

Gautam Adani pulled off a $2.5 billion equity sale for his flagship company, largely thanks to existing shareholders, earning the Indian billionaire some reprieve after his empire was rocked by fraud allegations from short seller Hindenburg Research. The offering by Adani Enterprises was fully subscribed on the final day, aided by a last- minute surge in demand from institutional investors. Interest from retail investors, who Adani was hoping to attract, was notably weak. Adani slipped out of the list of the world's top 10 richest people after a three-day stock selloff erased more than $68 billion of market value. Check out the world's rich list here.

Federal Reserve officials are on track to consider pausing interest-rate hikes following their March meeting if more evidence of cooling inflation rolls in. That's based on a timeline sketched out by one of the Fed's most closely watched hawks. Policymakers are widely expected to raise rates by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday, to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%, slowing from December's 50-basis-point increase after four straight 75-basis-point moves. Much, however, could depend on China. Read our Big Take on how the world's next big inflation shock is looming there.

Japan is quietly experiencing its biggest outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with infection rates rising rapidly and daily deaths hitting a record high. The country lost its crown as the best-performing wealthy nation when it comes to avoiding Covid deaths after a wave of omicron infections overwhelmed its health system this winter. The increase pushed Japan's overall mortality rate above New Zealand's, which now has the fewest deaths per capita among the OECD's 38-member countries. Meanwhile, China is trying to figure out what to do with all its abandoned Covid quarantine facilities. It's turned this camp into homes for tech talent.

Stocks in Asia were headed for gains after US shares ended January on a high note ahead of the Fed's meeting. Futures contracts for Japanese, Australian and Hong Kong equity benchmarks edged higher. The S&P 500 rose 1.5% to close out its best month since October. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index rallied 1.6% for its best month since July and strongest start to a year since 2001.

Ukraine's biggest allies have said they won't send fighter jets to Kyiv, denying a key request from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ahead of an expected escalation in fighting. While Kyiv's allies have stepped up shipments of military hardware in recent weeks ahead of a spring offensive that officials fear Russia may be planning, the US, UK and Germany have all ruled out sending military aircraft. Meanwhile, Russia's hunt for weapons to fire at Ukraine could give North Korea an economic boost.

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The Hindenberg-Adani confrontation threatens to turn into this year's Asian mood killer. China has played the spoiler role for emerging Asian assets the last two years (with a big assist last year from Russia's decision to invade Ukraine). Now, just as the end of Covid-Zero and a softer Federal Reserve path looked like clearing the way for emerging Asian markets to motor higher, the sell-off in Adani is here to remind investors just how risky some of the region's assets can be.

India's stock market has long stood out as a puzzlingly pricey leader for Asian equities, with the Sensex and the Nifty 50 gauges persistently trading at an earnings valuation premium to the S&P 500. Given India's notably shakier corporate governance and its political and geopolitical volatility, a comedown was long overdue. Perhaps the rest of the nation's assets can shake off concerns that other companies could have similar issues to Adani — or Adani itself will manage to overcome its current troubles. The more likely outcome would seem to be a period when India lags behind the rest of Asia's markets.

Garfield Reynolds is Chief Rates Correspondent for Bloomberg News in Asia, based in Sydney.

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