Asia markets fall as investors await key U.S. inflation numbers

China’s inflation rate is expected to fall further in April to 0.3%, according to a Reuters poll of 37 economists. The country will release its consumer price index on Thursday.

If the forecast turns out to be accurate, inflation will fall for the third month in a row and its lowest level since February 2021, when inflation was -0.2%.

Inflation in China was 0.7% in March after declining from a peak of 2.1% in January.

— Lim Hijie

Revenue was 1.6 trillion yen, down 5.5% year-on-year, and Nintendo’s net profit was 432.7 billion yen, beating the company’s forecast of 370 billion yen, but down more than 9% from last year. .

This was primarily due to lower sales of the flagship Nintendo Switch console. Nintendo sold 17.97 million of his Switches, down 22% from his record 23 million in the previous fiscal year.

Nintendo said that “shortages of semiconductors and other components impacted production until late in the summer,” and that the company “did not experience sales growth primarily during the holiday season.”

Nintendo expects to sell 15 million Switch units in the fiscal year ending March 2024.

— Arjun Kharpal, Lim Hui Jie

Rather than resting on its laurels, the Australian government should work to improve the structural position of the budget over the medium term, according to Australian Chamber of Commerce CEO Andrew McKellar.

“If you look at what’s projected at the moment, it’s projected to return to a $35 billion annual deficit within two years, so more needs to be done,” said ACCI CEO McKellar. He told CNBC in an interview Wednesday.

Late Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Jim Chalmers announced billions of dollars in cost-of-living cuts aimed at lowering electricity bills and consumer prices. Defense and relations with neighboring Pacific nations are another priority for Australia as it seeks to counter China’s growing strategic influence in the region, according to Reuters.

In various interviews with Australian media on Wednesday morning, Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denied concerns that the budget would exacerbate inflation.

Chalmers expects domestic growth to slow to just 1.25% in 2023-24 from 3.25% this year, largely due to a 375 basis point rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

“In our judgment, it’s time to pause,” said ACCI Chief Executive Officer McKellar. “The true test of the budget’s success will be whether the Reserve Bank sees it as de-risking inflation. It could be viewed as potentially dangerous, and that’s a situation we want to avoid.”

— Clement Tan

Korean Air CEO Walter Cho expects a full recovery by the third quarter. The company has doubled its operating profit since 2019, he told his CNBC “Squawk Box Asia.”

Passenger demand is “very strong right now,” with airlines reaching about 90% passenger capacity, Cho added.

Korean Air expects “very strong” demand from China, but currently only has about 30% of its seats, Cho said. Mr Cho said airlines expect capacity to be completely empty by the second half of the third quarter.

Japan has shown strong passenger numbers since the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, and the airline expects that to continue “throughout the year.”

– Audrey Wang

OCBC, Singapore’s second largest lender, Record net profit of S$1.88 billion ($1.42 billion).

This was up 39% year over year and 44% over Q4 2022. Revenue was S$3.35 billion, up 27% year-on-year and up 12% quarter-on-quarter.

Net interest income increased 56% year-on-year, supported by growth in average asset balances and a 75 basis point increase in net interest margin due to a sharp rise in interest rates in 2022.

Net interest income growth appears to be slowing, however, as OCBC says earnings in recent quarters were driven by higher non-interest income.

Non-interest income increased 65% from Q4 2022, while net interest income decreased 2% quarter-on-quarter.

OCBC shares were trading up 1.31% on Wednesday.

Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation posted a record net profit Sales for the fiscal year ending March were 1.18 trillion yen ($8.72 billion). first net profit exceeded 1 trillion.

This 1.18 trillion yen is a 25.94% increase compared to fiscal 2021, when the net profit was 937.5 billion yen. Gains in the natural gas, industrial materials and real estate sectors drove earnings.

However, the company said that net profit for the current term is likely to fall below 920 billion yen due to soaring resource prices.

Mitsubishi also announced an additional 200 billion yen share buyback in fiscal 2022, bringing the total amount of share buybacks to 370 billion yen. The company expects to buy back 100 billion yen of its own shares this term.

Mitsubishi shares surged 4.04 percent on Wednesday, topping the TOPIX in terms of index points.

Clean energy stocks have struggled since the pandemic, with negative returns every year since 2021.

But investment banker Bernstein said the bad sentiment about the sector may not last long.

Analysts at the bank now expect three clean energy stocks, two of which are traded on the U.S. stock exchange, to gain more than 35%.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Bank of America has doubled its bid on the electric-vehicle charging company and expects the stock to rise more than 100% over the next 12 months to $5.50 a share.

The EV charging company will release two new models of Supercharge, which are expected to contribute to electricity sales in the second half of this year.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

South Korea’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 2.6% in April, below the April 2022 record of 2.8%.

The 2.6% figure is lower than the unemployment rate of 2.7% in March.

Central Statistical Agency of South Korea The number of unemployed was 759,000 in April, down from 806,000 in the same period last year, according to the announcement.

The seasonally adjusted employment-to-population ratio in the country rose to 62.6 for those aged 15 and over, up from 62 in April 2022.

— Lim Hijie

Morgan Stanley equity strategists expect China’s A-share market to “lead the next phase of the Asian bull market,” they wrote in a note Tuesday.

“The performance after the Golden Week holiday is encouraging,” they wrote, noting that the Shanghai Composite Stock Price hit a 10-month high earlier in the week.

“I expect further progress towards CSI300. [forecast] The CSI300 index fell 0.86% to close at 4,027.88 on Tuesday, led by energy, technology and industry names.

– Lee Ji Hye

New York Fed President Williams said it will take longer for the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes to have an effect on the economy as a whole before inflation falls to its 2% target.

“Because there is a time lag between policy measures and their effects, it will take time for policies to take effect.” [Federal Open Market Committee’s] We will take steps to rebalance the economy and bring inflation back to our 2% target,” Williams said Tuesday at the Economic Club in New York.

Williams did not provide any forward guidance on what actions the central bank would take at the next FOMC meeting. His statement did little to move the market in either direction, with all three major indices trading below midday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 75 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively.

— Brian Evans, Jeff Cox

Halfway through the trading day, Wall Street is having another low-volume day.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the broader S&P 500 index, has so far traded at less than a third of its 30-day average volume. SPY so far he has traded 24.18 million shares. This is well below the 30-day average volume of 76.1 million.

Volumes were low on Monday as well, with SPY trading just 50.04 million shares. The day was his lowest trading day since November 25, when he traded just 30,545,430 shares. It was also a half day on Wall Street following the Thanksgiving holiday.

— Alex Haring

Local bank stocks fell again on Tuesday, but trading in the sector was relatively calm after some big swings in recent sessions.

PacWest shares fell about 5.4% in intraday trading. Western Alliance fell 3.8%.

The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) is down 1.6%, down more than 13% since early May.

— Jesse Pound