SINGAPORE : Asian stocks braked around two-month highs on Thursday, while the dollar nursed modest losses, after the U.S. Federal Reserve chose not to hike interest rates for the first time in 17 months, even if it opened the door to more hikes ahead.
The euro, made a one-month peak after the decision at $1.0865 and now, at $1.0826, awaits a European Central Bank meeting later in the day where markets expect an eighth straight rate hike will take borrowing costs to two-decade highs. "The market takeaway was that rates would stay high for longer, rather than spike upwards in line with the shift in projected Fed funds rate."
"The conditions we need to see ... to get inflation down are coming into place," Powell said."But the process of that actually working on inflation is going to take some time."In Asia the focus was on China where industrial output and retail sales figures fell short of market forecasts in the latest sign the economic recovery isn't living up to hopes.