Asian stock markets are trading mostly higher on Friday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan closed for holidays, on optimism about the end of the Middle East war amid the inking of an interim peace agreement and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. These were partially offset by concerns about a possible interest rate hike by the US Fed later this year. Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday.
The tumbling crude oil prices due to the hopes of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a plunge in gold prices due to the possibility of higher U.S. interest rates, both of which weighed on the energy and metal-linked materials sectors. Crude oil prices are pulling back further toward the levels seen before the war began in late February.
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Market Analysis
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.