Asian stock markets are trading higher on Thursday, reflecting the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, after the minutes of the US Fed's latest monetary policy meeting reiterated that a majority of participants expect one more interest rate hike will likely be appropriate before the end of the year. The continued decline by treasury yields from 16-year highs also aided the markets. Asian Markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday.
Traders now await the more closely watched report on US consumer price inflation in the month of September later in the day for clues on the outlook for interest rates.
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Market Analysis
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.