US President Joe Biden and Republican lawmaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday were edging close to a deal, with the parties just $70 billion apart on discretionary spending, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins said the time may be at hand for the US central bank to push the pause button on its rate-hiking campaign to see how the impact of past tightening is weighing on activity.

Asian Markets

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.49% to 30,943.17, while the Topix also gained 0.24%.

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.22%, while the Kosdaq gained 0.24%. Hong Kong markets are closed for a public holiday. 

US Markets

US indices ended mixed on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.11% to 32,764.65, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.71% to 12,698.09. The S&P 500 gained 0.88% to close at 4,151.28.

Europe

European stocks declined on Thursday due to the economic slowdown in Germany. Economic data showed that Germany’s economy entered recession in the first quarter, contracting by 0.3% after shrinking by 0.5% in the last three months of 2022. 

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.3% lower, shedding about 2.7% in three consecutive days. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.7% at 7,570.87. Germany’s DAX lost 0.3% at 15,793.80. France CAC 40 fell 0.2% at 7,229.27.

Currencies

The euro was little changed at $1.0727, while the Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 139.89 per dollar. The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.0904 per dollar, and the Australian dollar was flat at $0.6505

Energy

Crude oil prices traded flat as markets awaited clarity on OPEC and its allies’ next oil policy moves after conflicting messages made it hard to predict the outcome of the meeting next week.

Brent crude eased 0.04% to $76.23 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate gained 0.14% to $71.93 a barrel.

Bullion

Gold prices declined to near a two-month low as progress in US deal ceiling negotiations bolstered the dollar. 

Spot gold was flat at $1,939.18 per ounce, after hitting its lowest since March 22 in the previous session. US gold futures were down 0.2% at $1,939.60.