Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday as a drop in U.S. producer prices fueled hopes of Federal Reserve rate cuts and helped offset rising geopolitical tensions and widespread political turmoil in South Asia. Federal Reserve policymakers look all but certain to reduce short-term borrowing costs by a modest quarter of a percentage point at their policy meeting next week, but a half-point cut might become a real possibility if U.S. core CPI data due later in the day underwhelms. Consensus estimate show that t ...