Asian stocks creep higher

Ahead of Friday's highly anticipated U.S. core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data, which is the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, Asian markets were mainly rangebound. However, because of the extended Easter weekend in many countries, few markets will be available to evaluate and react to the fresh data.

Increased attention was also paid to the yen, which last session saw minimal movement at 151.35 per dollar after plunging to a 34-year bottom of 151.975.

In an emergency meeting on Wednesday, the three main monetary authorities in Japan discussed the weakening value of the yen and indicated that they were prepared to step in and stop what they saw as speculative and chaotic swings in the currency.

Due to the stronger yuan and anticipations that Beijing will implement more drastic measures to boost the economy, Chinese equities also recovered some of the losses they had suffered the day before.

Japan's Nikkei has benefited greatly from the falling yen; it has gained almost 3% so far this month. It ended the day more than 1% down.

Futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were trading essentially unchanged, while futures for the EUROSTOXX 50 increased by 0.32%. Futures on the FTSE rose 0.46%.

When it came to currencies, the dollar was leading the pack, partly due to remarks made by Fed Governor Christopher Waller late on Wednesday indicating that there is no urgency to lower interest rates.

Even if there is still a more than 50% possibility of a first Fed cut in June, traders are betting more on comparable actions by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank in the same month.

Key Events Today:

• US GDP (QoQ) (Q4) at 12:30 GMT
• US Initial Jobless Claims at 12:30 GMT

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com)