FX.co ★ Asian Markets Trade Mostly Higher

Most Asian stock markets show an uptick on Thursday, catching a break from negative influences seen in the Wednesday's Wall Street trading. The surge, which marks the first advance in a week, is boosted by the strengthening of regional currencies against the US dollar. However, concerns over the future of interest rates, following comments from the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, are partially counteracting the gains.

Powell noted that rates are expected to stay elevated due to a "lack of progress" toward meeting the central bank's inflation target. His comments, provoked by recent indicators showing persistent inflation and sustained economic strength, led to reduced predictions of a rate cut in June.

The Australian stock market, in particular, shows a significant increase on Thursday, partially recovering from losses over the past five sessions. Despite negative Wall Street cues, the S&P/ASX 200 benchmark is above the 7,600 threshold, with most sectors showing gains led by the iron ore mining and technology sectors.

As the trading day pushed on, the S&P/ASX 200 Index rose by 50.80 points or 0.67% to 7,656.40. Major miners such as Rio Tinto and Mineral Resources have seen increases of over 1% each, while BHP Group and Fortescue Metals increase by nearly 2% and 1%, respectively. In contrast, gold miners such as Evolution Mining and Resolute Mining experienced losses of over 3% and 2% respectively, while Gold Road Resources fell over 1%.

After a three-session downturn, the Japanese market takes a modest upturn on Thursday. The Nikkei 225 index fares well over the 38,000 mark, gains in technology and financial stocks partially offset losses in index heavyweights.

The market heavyweight, SoftBank Group, saw a loss of over 3%. In contrast, in the tech sector, Advantest increased by over 2%, and Screen Holdings rose by almost 1%. Within the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Mizuho Financial, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial saw gains of 0.2%, over 1%, and 1.5% respectively.

Asian markets beyond Australia and Japan are largely showing an uptake, with Hong Kong witnessing a 1.6% rise. Nations including China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Indonesia demonstrate growth between 0.1% and 1.0% each. Conversely, New Zealand veers from the trend, experiencing a 0.8% dip.

On Wall Street Wednesday's session was a mixed bag, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 extending their losing streaks to four days, reaching their lowest closing levels in nearly two months. The Dow, however, experienced a relatively modest loss of 45.66 points or 0.1% to finish at 37,753.31.

The major European markets initially surged but eventually eased, although most still finished in positive territory. Specifically, the French CAC 40 Index increased by 0.6 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index ascended by 0.4 percent, and the German DAX Index closed marginally above the breakeven point.

In other markets, crude oil prices nosedived on Wednesday, mounting to slight losses from the two prior sessions after data revealed a spike in U.S. crude oil stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate, a grade of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing, depreciated $2.67 or 3.1 percent for a final trading price of $82.69 a barrel for the May futures contract.