Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Thursday, following the broadly positive cues from global markets overnight, as traders reacted positively to cooler-than-expected US inflation data in the month of June, which eased concerns about the outlook for interest rates. The report also showed a notable slowdown in the annual rate of US consumer price growth. Asian Markets closed mixed on Wednesday.
While the US Fed is still widely expected to raise interest rates by another quarter point later this month, the data has led to renewed optimism that will be the end of the central bank's rate-hiking cycle.
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June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.