most asian markets rose thursday and the dollar weakened further on hopes the federal reserves campaign of interest rate hikes could be close to an end after it acknowledged progress in its longrunning battle against inflation tech firms led a surge in the nasdaq and sp 500 on wall street after the central bank unveiled its forecast quarterpoint increase in borrowing costs but also noted progress in bringing prices under control and while chair jerome powell warned officials would need substantially more evidence to be confident that inflation is on a sustained downward path analysts said he appeared unmoved by market expectations for a lower terminal rate the decision to lift rates by the smallest amount in almost a year came after a series of data points suggested the worlds top economy was slowing down with inflation at its lowest since october 2021 the broadly dovish turn from the fed provided an extra fillip to investors who had grown concerned that januarys rally may have been overdone and that the rate hikes would continue for well into the year the message from chair powell and the fed committee members was to be mission notaccomplished that the disinflation process had only just begun and there is more to be done to get inflation back to the 2 target with ongoing rates hikes said kerry craig at jp morgan asset management however what was delivered was a more dovish message that didnt really push back on the market expectation that the fed wont reach a policy rate over five percent he added that powell seems to be less concerned about shortterm moves in financial conditions and more so with the 450 basis points in policy tightening in the last 12 months and the lagged impact it would have on the economy even as chair powell reiterated the feds commitment to getting inflation back to the mandated percent target it also referenced the ongoing or expected disinflation in the economy just as much the news pushed all three main indexes on wall street higher with the nasdaq up two percent  tech firms prefer a low interest rate environment in early asian trade hong kong tokyo shanghai sydney seoul wellington taipei and jakarta all rose and the dollar extended wednesdays losses after sinking against the yen pound and euro in reaction to the softer tone from the fed forex traders will now turn their attention to policy decisions by the bank of england and european central bank later in the day they come after figures wednesday showed eurozone inflation slowed much more than expected in december thanks to a drop in energy prices however thornburg investment managements ali hassan warned the battle against inflation had not yet been won an easing in financial conditions that is lower market interest rates tighter spreads higher equity prices is counterproductive to controlling inflation he said in a note the fed will likely have to start more hawkish talk in order to walk back powells comments on financial easing oil prices rose in asian trade helped by the weaker dollar easing concerns about the economic outlook in light of the fed remarks and hopes for chinas recovery the gains helped both main contracts bounce back after tumbling around three percent wednesday on the back of data showing a pickup in us stockpiles that dampened demand optimism dollaryen down at 12853 yen from 12890 yen on wednesday eurodollar up at 11017 from 10995 pounddollar up at 12384 from 12378 europound up at 8898 pence from 8876 pence west texas intermediate up 08 percent at 7701 per barrel brent north sea crude up 07 percent at 8341 per barrel new york  dow up less than 01 percent at 3409296 close