Asian markets up on US Fed dovish stance

Asian markets ended the week on a high today (October 9th), led by Wall Street, after the release of minutes from the US Federal Reserve's September meeting.

Investors reacted positively to the dovish language of the US central bank, which gave more details about its decision to keep interest rates unchanged.

The Fed said the economic conditions for a rate hike were almost met but decided it was prudent to wait for additional information confirming that the outlook had not deteriorated due to the global economic slowdown.

"You've got an absence of bad news and arguably some good news in there," Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Mass, told Reuters. "Given the news since then, if they were willing to wait then for inflation to come back they're even more willing now."

Australia's ASX 200 closed 1.3 per cent higher at 5,279.70, China's Shanghai Composite gained 1.3 per cent to 3,143.35 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 0.6 per cent to 22458.80. South Korea's Kospi gained 0.7 per cent to 2019.53 and Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.6 per cent to 18438.67.

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