Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Friday the central bank did not have a set time frame for achieving its 2% inflation target but that it would strive to hit it at the earliest date possible.
China’s manufacturing surveys this week provided contradictory signals of factory activity in May, suggesting the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy remains uncertain, and policymakers may need to do more to spur growth.
Sluggish global demand deepened the decline in manufacturing activity across Europe and the United States and remained a major challenge for many of Asia's big exporters, business surveys for May showed.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased modestly last week and private employers hired more workers than expected in May, pointing to continued labor market tightness that could push the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated.
Asian stocks surged on Friday as the progress on the bill to raise U.S. debt ceiling and increasing hopes that the Federal Reserve might stand still on interest rates in its next meeting helped perk up investor appetite for risky assets.
Oil prices rose on Friday in early Asian trade as markets weighed the likelihood of price-supportive OPEC+ production cuts over the weekend amid positive sentiment over U.S. monetary policy and Washington's debt ceiling bill.