Even though Asian markets rose overnight, gains were restrained due to concerns over slowing economic growth and delayed global tightening.

On Friday, gains in Asian markets were restrained due to concerns over slowing economic growth and rising forecasts that global central banks may delay further tightening of monetary policy due to falling inflation.

According to U.S. data released yesterday, producer price index inflation decreased much further in March. The information raised expectations that the Fed would soon stop raising interest rates, especially as it came a day after the consumer price index fell. The Fed will raise rates one more time in May, followed by a pause in June, according to Fed Fund futures prices.

Markets increasingly worry that this year's economic growth will be hampered by rising interest rates. Recent data already suggest a slowdown in activity, which might get worse if short-term interest rates stay high.

Policymakers appeared to be apprehensive of a "mild" U.S. recession this year, which might potentially spread to other countries, according to signals from the Fed.

As a result, markets continued to be fearful of risky assets, which constrained Friday's advances in Asian markets. Additionally, regional markets mostly ignored encouraging overnight indications from Wall Street indices.

US Core Retail sales are due today at 13:30 GMT, which may have an impact on the US Dollar. The Dollar has slumped to one year low after the US inflation data was released, therefore investors will be monitoring the retail sales data to see if a bounce higher is on the cards.

(investing.com, reuters.com)