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(Reuters) – TOKYO, July 15 (Reuters) – On Thursday, Asian stocks maintained steady after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the US economy was “still a long way off” from the levels the central bank desired before reducing monetary support. In Asia, earnings from key firms, notably Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC, will be a major focus, as will a slew of Chinese economic data due later in the day (2330.TW). In early trade, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific equities outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was unchanged, while Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) fell 0.4 percent. The S& Powell also told the Financial Services Committee of the United States House of Representatives that recent price spikes are related to the country’s post-pandemic recovery and will diminish. find out more His remarks come as statistics released this week revealed that consumer prices rose the most in 13 years in June, while producer prices raced to their highest annual gain in almost a decade. find out more Powell reassured markets that the Fed is not overly concerned about inflation, according to Chotaro Morita, chief rates strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities. Global bond yields fell, with the 10-year US Treasury yield falling to 1.348 percent after peaking at 1.423 percent on Wednesday. The yield on inflation-protected bonds, sometimes known as the real yield, fell below minus 1.0 percent, remaining close to its lowest level since February. “Given that bond yield falls began before Powell’s speech, the market was most likely driven by short-covering and unwinding of underweight positions rather than Powell’s words per se,” SMBC Nikko’s Morita remarked. Powell’s dovish tone dented the US dollar in the currency market. The euro rose to $1.1835 from a three-month low of $1.1772 on Wednesday. After a 0.6 percent drop on Wednesday, the dollar was trading at 109.99 yen. After the Bank of Canada cut its weekly net purchases of government bonds, expressing confidence that GDP will rebound rapidly, the Canadian currency was barely changed at C$1.2518 per US dollar. find out more On Wednesday, gold hit a one-month high of $1,829.8 per ounce, before settling at $1,826.1. Oil prices fell after major global oil producers reached an agreement on supply and after statistics from the United States indicated that demand had slowed slightly in the previous week. find out more Brent crude prices fell 0.8 percent to $74.18 per barrel, while US crude futures down 1.0 percent to $72.40 per barrel. Sam Holmes did the editing. The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles are our standards./nRead More

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