Reuters
Asia gets back up toward full speed on Thursday after many markets were closed for the May Day holiday, with the U.S. Fed's guidance, a surging yen and manufacturing PMIs from across the continent all serving as potential market sign posts. Asia's economic calendar is jam-packed on Thursday, with highlights including: manufacturing PMIs from seven countries, consumer inflation from South Korea and Indonesia, Hong Kong's first quarter GDP, Australian trade figures, and consumer confidence from Japan. Moves in U.S. trading on Wednesday will likely set the early market tone - Wall Street gyrated, yields tumbled and the dollar fell after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said an interest rate hike was "unlikely", and that his baseline scenario is still for inflation to cool and pave the way for lower interest rates.