Asian market updates: RBA meeting, China trade

Shares of iPhone maker Foxconn soared as much as 6.73% after the company announced that April sales rose 19.03% from a year earlier.

Foxconn, which trades in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industries, posted sales of NT$510.9 billion ($15.83 billion) in April, compared with sales of NT$447.54 billion in March. .

The company said its components business and cloud and networking products “achieved strong growth,” while its smart appliances and computing products division “saw strong year-over-year sales growth.”

According to a private survey, the expansion of China’s service activities in April slowed slightly from March.

The Caixin/S&P Global Services Purchasing Managers Index stood at 52.5 in April, down from 52.7 in March.

“Although there has been a slight slowdown, growth is strong again and has now been maintained for 16 consecutive months,” the study said.

PMI readings above 50 indicate expansion in activity, while readings below that level indicate contraction.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Private sector business activity in Hong Kong expanded at a moderate pace in April, according to S&P Global.

The city’s Purchasing Managers Index fell to 50.6 from 50.9 in March.

Jingyi Pan, associate director of economics at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said the numbers suggest business confidence will improve again early in the second quarter.

But Pan said growth appeared to be in a “precarious situation” and stressed that forward-looking indicators, such as a decline in new orders in April, suggested conditions were softening.

— Lim Huijie

Thanks to the artificial intelligence boom, big tech companies like Nvidia are in the spotlight, and so are other chipmakers.

The AI ​​supply chain is extensive. This includes companies from the Asia-Pacific region, ranging from manufacturers of AI graphics processing equipment to printed circuit boards.

With advances in AI, memory chips in particular are attracting attention.

Two stocks dominate the memory chip market: Samsung and SK Hynix.

Which one will best navigate the AI ​​boom? CNBC Pro spoke to experts to find out.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Tan Weizhen

Goldman Sachs has updated its list of the world’s top stocks, adding some and deleting others.

The list, called the Conviction List – Director’s Cut, includes names from across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

The investment bank’s Conviction List – Director’s Cut aims to provide investors with a “curated, active” list of 15 to 25 stocks rated buys.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about the latest additions here.

— Amara Balakrishna

The fund is up more than 4% since the beginning of 2024.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francola

April’s nonfarm payrolls report showed payrolls rose by 175,000, lower than the 240,000 expected by economists compiled by Dow Jones.

The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% from 3.8% the previous month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Due to revisions to the employment numbers for February and March, the cumulative number of jobs added during the same period decreased by 22,000.

— Jesse Pound

The Japanese yen was trading at 152.93 yen against the US dollar, ending its best week in more than a year, despite hitting 160.03 yen on Monday, its lowest since 1990.

Analysts including Bank of America have suggested there were likely two interventions by Japanese authorities in the week, on Monday and Wednesday. Authorities have not yet issued an official statement confirming the intervention.

Nicholas Smith, Japan strategist at CLSA, told CNBC: “The government has refused to say publicly whether there will be any intervention, but I don’t think many people have doubts about it.”

The yen has recovered about 4.5% since hitting a 34-year low on Monday.