Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Friday, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, on continued optimism the US Fed will leave interest rates unchanged amid data showing US consumer price growth accelerated in line with economist estimates in July. Traders also seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly US jobs report later in the day. Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday.
"July PCE inflation was modest for a second straight month, establishing a solid runway for the Fed to leave rates unchanged next month," said Chris Low and Will Compernolle, FHN Financial Chief Economist and Macro Strategist.
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Business News
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.