14 minutes ago
China’s April consumption slows, industrial activity remains strong
China’s April retail sales and fixed asset investment were lower than market expectations, but industrial production grew more than expected year-on-year.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales rose 2.3% in April from a year earlier. That was lower than the 3.8% increase expected in a Reuters poll and slower than the 3.1% pace reported in March.
Industrial production rose 6.7% in April compared to the same month last year, exceeding the expected 5.5% growth and also significantly higher than March’s 4.5%.
Fixed asset investment increased by 4.2% in the first four months of this year, but fell short of the expected 4.6% increase.
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—Evelyn Chen
1 hour ago
Singapore’s decline in domestic non-oil exports slows in April
Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell 9.3% year-on-year in April, slowing from a 20.8% decline in March.
Data from Enterprise Singapore showed that while electronics products grew again, non-electronics products such as pharmaceuticals were responsible for the decline.
This exceeded the 10% decline expected in a Reuters poll.
NODX to Singapore’s largest market fell in April. Exports to the US and EU fell by 40.6% and 55.1%, respectively, compared to declines of 50.2% and 45.4% in March.
— Shreyashi Sanyal
1 hour ago
Japan’s central bank governor says there are ‘no immediate plans’ to sell ETF holdings: Reuters
According to Reuters, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told the Diet that the central bank has no plans to sell its ETF holdings anytime soon.
“We need to spend some time deciding what to do, including whether to withdraw the ETFs we own,” Ueda said.
The Bank of Japan abolished its yield curve control policy in March, suspending purchases of ETFs and Japanese REITs.
According to a March report by financial information service website QUICK, the Bank of Japan’s cumulative ETF holdings are 37.15 trillion yen ($238.92 billion), with an estimated market capitalization of 71.3 trillion yen.
— Lim Huijie
3 hours ago
CNBC Pro: BofA names Asia’s most important stock – analysts give it more than 40% upside potential
BofA Securities has selected the 20 most important stocks in Asia from the constituent stocks of the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.
Backtesting found that the investment bank’s stocks “have outperformed in 16 of the past 29 calendar years and tend to outperform in bull markets.”
“In recent years, they would have significantly outperformed in 2019-20, but they would have significantly underperformed in 2021-22,” BofA analysts said, naming stocks on screen. “This is an important stock that investors need to get right.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about the stock here.
— Amara Balakrishna
3 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Meme stocks and more: Analysts name ‘red zone’ companies to avoid
7 hours ago
Barclays says big tech stocks still have room to rise
Rafael Enrique | Light Rocket | Getty Images
The technology sector is primarily leading the current market rally, driven by artificial intelligence-related tailwinds. Graphics processor maker Nvidia’s stock is up 91% this year alone.
Despite this bull market, Barclays remains constructive on the sector.
“Big Tech fundamentals remain strong here, and while the bar is set very high for the group, we believe there is room to perform over the next few quarters. Earnings have further strengthened since the first quarter, and even earnings have split.”There are even more gains to be made from the rest of the S&P 500,” strategist Venu Krishna wrote in a note.
Krishna added that the defensible margins that characterize the sector are valuable in an increasingly challenging macroeconomic environment.
— Lisa Kailai Han
9 hours ago
S&P 500 heading towards 5,575 level, says Strategas’ Verrone
The S&P 500 could next find support at the 5,575 level, according to Chris Bellone, head of technical and macro research at Strategas.
”[It’s] “While not exactly rocket science, the simple breakout methodology suggests the next S&P target of approximately $5,550-$5,600,” Bellone wrote in a note Thursday.
See chart…
The S&P 500 is up about 12% this year.
The S&P 500 index is up more than 2% in the past week and is up nearly 12% in 2024.
— Brian Evans
9 hours ago
Bernanke’s paper says the U.S. may need to raise the unemployment rate for the ‘last mile’ in the fight against inflation
A new study authored by former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and International Monetary Fund veteran Olivier Blanchard shows that unemployment rates need to rise in the U.S. and other countries for inflation to return to normal levels. This suggests that there is a possibility.
The research report, published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, is the result of a project in which 10 of the world’s central banks used a model developed by Bernanke and Blanchard to examine the pandemic-era inflation surge. It is. The study showed that achieving the “last mile” of lowering inflation may require a period of higher unemployment and slower wage growth.
“As the effects of relative price shocks and scarcity stabilized or reversed, inflation declined and the role of labor market tightness became increasingly important. “This suggests that economic activity may need to slow down to some extent.” The gist of the paper was as follows.
In its conclusion, the paper notes that in the United States, “unemployment costs in the last mile may be limited.”
— Jesse Pound
