Asian stocks ended broadly lower on Friday, even as mainland Chinese and Hong Kong markets rallied after China's cabinet pledged more policy steps to help the world's second-largest economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A cautious undertone prevailed elsewhere on concerns that aggressive monetary tightening by major central banks to cool inflation could lead to a slowdown in global growth.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.