56 minutes ago
Samsung Electronics union to go on strike over wages, working conditions
Workers at Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s largest conglomerate, are reportedly going on strike on Friday over wages and working conditions.
If the strike goes ahead, it will be the first one Samsung has faced since its founding.
Reuters, citing market research firm TrendForce, said analysts do not expect the labor dispute to have a significant impact on semiconductor production. The company’s shares rose 0.65% on Friday.
Trend Force also noted that the strike involves more workers at Samsung’s headquarters in the capital Seoul than those directly involved in production.
— Lim Hui Jie, Reuters
1 hour ago
Japan’s household spending rose for the first time since February 2023 but fell short of expectations
Japan’s real household spending rose 0.5% in April from a year earlier, the first increase since February 2023, but fell short of the 0.6% increase forecast in a Reuters poll.
The average monthly consumption expenditure per household in April was 313,300 yen on a nominal basis, up 3.4% from the previous month.
The average monthly income per household was 566,457 yen, up 2.3% from the previous year in nominal terms and down 0.6% in real terms.
The April data is important as most Japanese companies restart their fiscal year in that month and implement internal reforms, meaning the record wage increases that unions successfully negotiated this year are likely to come into effect from April.
Lim Hui Jie
2 hours ago
CNBC Pro: These top-performing stocks are set to continue to rise, with a 52% gain expected, according to analysts
Half of the year has passed, but stock prices are still rising.
The S&P 500 hit a new record on Wednesday, as did the Nasdaq Composite Index, which has helped the index rise 12.93% year to date.
CNBC Pro used FactSet to screen the S&P 500 and MSCI World indexes to identify stocks that have already outperformed the market this year but could do even better in the second half of the year and beyond.
CNBC Pro subscribers can find more details here.
Wei-Jen Tan
2 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Go Beyond Nvidia: Fund manager backs ‘overlooked’ chipmaker with billions of dollars in AI chip sales
Chipmaker Nvidia is the clear poster child for artificial intelligence, but another company is being overlooked, according to one portfolio manager.
“[We] The gold standard for AI chips is Nvidia, and it is, but there’s another company that’s made over $1 billion in AI revenue. [artificial intelligence] “Clare Pleydell Bouverie, a portfolio manager at UK-based Liontrust Asset Management, told CNBC’s Pro Talks last week.
“What is often overlooked is [it] It is the second largest semiconductor manufacturer in the industry.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can find more details here.
Amala Balakrishner
6 hours ago
UBS says strong market fundamentals justify further stock gains
The S&P 500 may have hit another all-time high on Wednesday afternoon, but Mark Haefele sees no signs of the rally stopping in the near term.
“While bonds remain our most favored asset class, we believe equities also have the potential to rise further,” wrote the chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management. “Our base case sees the S&P 500 reaching 5,500 by year-end, driven by Fed rate cuts, robust earnings growth and secular growth trends driven by artificial intelligence.”
Haefel said he expects interest rates to be cut by 50 basis points by the end of the year, starting sometime in September. He added that he is strategically invested in technology assets, but that he sees opportunities in small caps as the U.S. central bank begins to ease monetary policy.
— Lisa Kailai Han
7 hours ago
Deutsche Bank predicts that Friday could see “the longest period of unemployment below 4% since the early 1950s.”
Employer representatives attend the 2024 Veterans Employment and Resource Fair in Long Beach, California, on January 9, 2024.
Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Economists expect the U.S. unemployment rate to be 3.9% when the May nonfarm payrolls report is released on Friday, according to FactSet. A rate below 3.9% would mark “the longest period since the early 1950s for the unemployment rate to be below 4%, “according to a research note released this week by Deutsche Bank macro strategist Henry Allen.
The U.S. unemployment rate stayed below 4% for 27 consecutive months in the late 1960s, but the early 1950s was the last time it stayed at that level for more than 28 months. “Time will tell if the early 1950s will be a similar story, but if those similarities hold, there is plenty of room for optimism. In particular, low unemployment often stimulates productivity growth, as companies find it harder to hire workers and focus on making their existing employees more productive. Given the growth of modern AI, this suggests there may be upside risks to economic growth over the next few years.”
In the early 1950s, the unemployment rate stayed below 4% for 35 consecutive months, a figure it has never exceeded since.
Scott Schnipper
13 hours ago
Jobless claims rise, trade deficit rises, labor costs fall short of expectations
Economic data released Thursday morning showed jobless claims and the trade deficit trending higher, while labor costs came in lower than expected.
- According to the Labor Department, initial claims for unemployment benefits for the week ending June 1 totaled 229,000, up 8,000 from the previous week and above expectations of 220,000. Continuing claims were little changed at 1.79 million.
- The trade deficit in April was $74.6 billion, up $6 billion from March, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but below the Dow Jones forecast of $76.5 billion.
- Nonfarm productivity rose 0.2% in the first quarter, while unit labor costs rose 4%, according to revised estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had expected productivity to be flat and labor costs to rise 5%.
Jeff Cox
