Asian equity markets advanced on speculation the Federal Reserve and other central banks are nearing the end of their hiking cycles.
The dollar slipped further. An Asia Pacific stock gauge was on course for its highest close since February as major indexes gained from Japan to Australia, tracking rallies in US stocks.
The S&P 500 climbed the most this month on Thursday, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq had the best day since the middle of March following weaker-than-expected US producer prices. US equity futures were little changed, while those for Europe pointed to gains.
“Japanese stocks are expected to be firm throughout the day as the outlook for US monetary tightening has receded given the softening US PPI data and an increase in jobless claims,” said Nobuhiko Kuramochi, a market strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo. In a further sign rates are peaking around the world, Singapore’s central bank kept its policy settings unchanged after five tightening moves.
A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar slipped for the fourth day to the lowest since early February as the US currency weakened against all its Group-of-10 peers.
-BLOOMBERG
