The Philippine central bank hinted at an interest rate reduction in the third or fourth quarter of this year after policymakers decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged for the fifth straight session on Thursday. The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, governed by Eli Remolona, maintained the target reverse repurchase rate at 6.50 percent.

While reporting financial results for the first quarter on Thursday, retail giant Walmart, Inc. (WMT) initiated its adjusted earnings and net sales growth guidance for the second quarter, well above analysts' estimates. It also maintained full-year 2025 outlook.

Shares of Siemens AG were declining around 5 percent in German trading after the conglomerate reported Thursday weak profit in its second quarter on the absence of prior year's hefty gain as well as lower revenues. Orders also were lower in the quarter. Further, the firm confirmed its fiscal 2024 outlook, but trimmed outlook for Digital Industries comparable revenue and margin.

e-commerce company JD.com, Inc. (JD) reported Thursday a net income attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of RMB7.13 billion or $987 million, compared to RMB6.26 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income per ADS was RMB4.53 or $0.63, up 15.3 percent from RMB3.93 last year.

Indian shares rose notably on Thursday after Wall Street's three major indexes notched record closes overnight on optimism that inflation is heading back in the right direction and that there will be two interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve in 2024.

On Thursday, the yen strengthened against the US dollar in response to improving Federal Reserve interest rate prospects. The USDJPY pair has declined to 153.88.

US inflation resumes downtrend, retail sales stagnate - Dollar falls as investors add to Fed rate cut bets - Yen gains even as Japanese economy contracts - Wall Street at fresh records, gold rallies on US data

US inflation resumes downtrend, retail sales stagnate - Dollar falls as investors add to Fed rate cut bets - Yen gains even as Japanese economy contracts - Wall Street at fresh records, gold rallies on US data

Expert market comment made by senior analyst Alex Kuptsikevich of the FxPro Analyst Team: Crypto market shakes off consolidation

The euro rose 0.6% against the dollar, while the dollar-yen pair fell by 1% and the gold-dollar pair surged 1.2%. Nike's shares declined by 0.7%. Lower US inflation sparked hopes for an early Fed rate cut, boosting the S&P 500 and NASDAQ. Key economic events today include industrial production and unemployment data from the US, Australia, Japan, Italy, and the Netherlands.