Asian stock markets are trading mixed on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, as worries about economic slowdown, inflation and rate hike concerns continued to weigh on the market. Traders are also cautious ahead of the monetary policy announcements by the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank later in the day. Asian Markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday.
The Australian stock market is slightly weak in choppy trading on Thursday, giving up some of the gains in the previous session, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 staying below the 6,800 level, despite the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with weakness in materials and energy stocks nearly offset by the strong gains in technology stocks.
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April 17, 2026 15:29 ET The ongoing conflict in the Middle East continues to raise concerns for policymakers who worry about the impact of the supply shock and high energy prices on the real economy. Producer price data and various survey results on the housing market were the main news from the U.S. this week. In Europe, industrial production data for the euro area gained attention. GDP figures out of China and the policy move by the Singapore central bank were in focus in Asia.