By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Asia Pacific stocks were mixed on Thursday morning, even after U.S. counterparts closed their best day in the month to date. A benchmark that was lower than U.S. data showed an upward trend. This could affect how fast the Federal Reserve will tighten its monetary policies.

Japan’s inched up 0.07% by 9:37 PM ET (2:37 AM GMT), while South Korea’s inched down 0.09%.

The Australian dollar rose 0.02%.

Hong Kong’s was down 0.23%.

China’s inched up 0.07% while the fell 0.63%.

U.S. futures fell after a prolonged rally that saw the price rise by more than 2% Wednesday. Walt and Uber Technologies share (NYSE:) Inc. Disney Strong earnings helped (NYSE:) Co. gain in late trading. Strong auctions helped stabilize the U.S. Treasury 10-year yield.

Later in the day, the U.S. inflation data including the will be available.

“The market is being somewhat sanguine about what will happen in the second half of 2022,” Franklin Templeton Fixed Income chief investment officer Sonal Desai said in a note.

“There is an expectation that inflation will decline sharply. It is possible to be optimistic about this because many factors that drive inflation will continue to be there. The Fed is already behind the curve.”

Fed Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester, alongside Atlanta counterpart Raphael Bostic, signaled all options are on the table for the size of policy makers’ first interest-rate increase in March 2022, but Mester does not see a “compelling case” for a 50-basis-point hike.

They indicated that they wanted the central bank’s monetary tightening to start soon. Markets are pricing in five Fed increases in 2022.

Kim Forrest (Bokeh Capital Partners Chief Investment Officer) was skeptical of such wagers. She argued that inflation may ease if monetary policy are tightened.

Five to seven Fed hikes “is just so crazy, it’s a lot driven by bond people here who really just want to get that 10-year to the 3% rate, and I don’t know that’s possible,” said Forrest, who expects maybe two Fed rate increases in 2022.

The euro was up, boosted by reports that more European Central Bank policymakers were losing confidence in the central bank’s current forecasting,

encouraging them to move toward increasing rates later in the year. Andrew Bailey, Bank of England Governor, is scheduled to address the audience later in today.