Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday as caution prevailed ahead of the release of the U.S Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday, which could shed more light on the Federal Reserve's tapering strategy.
U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank is likely to start scaling back bond purchases this year depending upon the improvement in the labor market.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.