Asian stock markets are trading higher on Wednesday, following the broadly positive cues from the global markets overnight, amid fading concerns about an aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve at its upcoming monetary policy meeting later this month. Optimism about upcoming earnings news is also aiding market sentiment, with a majority of the US companies beating expectations so far this season. Asian Markets closed mostly lower on Tuesday.
The Australian stock market is sharply higher on Wednesday, recouping the losses in the previous sessions, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 moving above the 6,700 level, following the positive cues from global markets overnight, with gains across most sectors, particularly technology, materials and financial stocks.
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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.