Mirroring the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Thursday, amid optimism over the outlook for interest rates after the US Fed left interest rates unchanged and the accompanying statement signaled three interest rate cuts next year as inflation eased over the past year. Asian Markets closed mixed on Wednesday.
The median forecast indicates rates will be lowered to 4.6 percent by the end of 2024. During his post-meeting press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that rate cuts will be a "topic of discussion" at upcoming meetings.
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Market Analysis
May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.