Most major Asian indexes rose on Tuesday ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s September meeting as investors awaited clues from the central bank on future monetary policy.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.27 percent as markets resumed trade following a public holiday. Exporters, trading houses and retailers notched gains after the dollar hit a seven-week high against the yen overnight.

Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi shed 0.03 percent in early trade, with tech stocks giving up some gains made in the previous session. Samsung Electronics was off 0.11 percent after rising to a record high on Monday.

Down Under, the S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.28 percent, with the heavily-weighted financials sub-index leading gains in early trade and climbing 0.62 percent.

Investors will shift their attention to the Fed as the Federal Open Market Committee begins a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday. The central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged when it announces its decision on Sept. 20, but investors are awaiting details on how it will reduce $3.7 trillion in Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities bought during the financial crisis.

Ahead of the event, the dollar held onto gains after creeping higher overnight, with the greenback touching a seven-week high against the yen overnight. The U.S. currency last fetched 111.48 yen. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of currencies, was mostly flat at 91.967.

“Speculation around the impending FOMC meeting is … driving the U.S. dollar, with markets eyeing both the unwind of the balance sheet and any tweaks to the dot plot,” Felicity Emmett, senior economist at ANZ, said in a note.

Stocks on Wall Street closed higher on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 0.28 percent, or 63.01 points, to close at 22,331.35 — its fifth consecutive record close.

Elsewhere, the pound was pushed lower overnight after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney on Monday said future hikes in interest rates could be “at a gradual pace and to a limited extent.” Sterling traded at $1.3518 at 8:11 a.m. HK/SIN, compared to the $1.358 handle seen during Asian trade on Monday.

In corporate news, Chinese search company Baidu announced over the weekend it had hired Herman Yu as its chief financial officer. Yu was formerly the CFO of Weibo, a microblogging platform. In a statement addressing the appointment, Baidu CEO Robin Li said the company was looking forward to entering “the next stage of growth in the AI [artificial intelligence] era.”

Meanwhile, the institutional tranche of Chinese online insurer ZhongAn Online Property and Casualty Insurance’s initial public offering has been oversubscribed, Reuters said Monday. The insurance company is expected to debut on the Hong Kong exchange Sept. 28, according to Reuters.

On the energy front, oil prices were steady. While U.S. refineries were gradually resuming operations, restarting port operations could lead to increased imports and stockpiles, Reuters said. U.S. crude inched higher by 0.02 percent to trade at $49.92 a barrel and Brent crude edged down 0.09 percent to $55.43.

Asia Pacific data due on Tuesday is largely Australia-focused (all times in HK/SIN):

• 9:30 a.m.: Reserve Bank of Australia minutes
• 9:30 a.m.: Australia second-quarter house price index