Asia markets rise as Japan keeps monetary policy unchanged, yen weakens

CBRE’s Henry Chin said commercial properties in Singapore may be of interest to investors as they are not subject to additional stamp duty.

CBRE is “very positive” for offices, retail stores, hotels, especially shophouses, Chin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

The large housing market is likely to remain resilient and stable, but Chin said Singapore’s newly raised property tax will have a ‘severe impact’ on speculative luxury home investment. Stamp duty for foreign buyers of residential property doubled from 30% to 60% from Thursday.

“By 2023, we expect housing transaction value to drop by 10%,” he added.

In Hong Kong, commercial property is becoming “increasingly attractive” to new investors as rents fall, Mr Chin said. However, he said Singapore remains a “safer choice” for risk-averse investors as it offers a steady stream of income.

— Audrey Wang

SMIC, China’s top chip maker, would not be able to produce cutting-edge chips without access to high-tech equipment, analysts told CNBC.

SMIC, or Semiconductor Manufacturing International, Inc., does not have access to the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines that are essential for low-cost, high-scale production of advanced chips.

EUV devices can only be made by one company in the world, the Dutch company ASML.

“It’s not commercially profitable for SMIC to make these chips with less advanced equipment,” said Felix Lee, an equity analyst at Morningstar Asia.

Dutch regulations stipulate that ASML must apply for a license to export EUV machines. ASML has so far not shipped these advanced machines to China.

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— Sheila Chen

Private house prices in Singapore rose 3.3% in Q1 2023. That’s a faster pace than his 0.4% rise recorded last quarter.

Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore It revealed that In the first quarter of 2023, landed property prices increased by 5.9% and non-landed property prices increased by 2.6%.

This compares with a 0.6% increase in landed properties and a 0.3% increase in non-landed properties recorded in the previous quarter.

Separately, rents rose 7.2%, down slightly from 7.4% in the previous quarter.

That’s behind the surprising cooling measures Singapore implemented late Wednesday amid fears that a surge in prices “could preempt economic fundamentals”.

— Lim Hijie

Bank of Japan officials have launched plans for a “broad policy review” that will include discussions on changes to forward guidance. Nikkei reported.

The report added that a follow-through could take place about a year after the review, including deferring a decision on YCC fine-tuning during negotiations.

Nikkei also reported that the central bank is moving towards amending its guidance to remove references to monitoring the impact of Covid, and wording that it stands ready to ease further if necessary. Discuss removing.

— Lee Ji-hye

Japanese Airlines All Nippon Airways Posted net income for the full year The 89.5 billion yen ($668 million) in fiscal 2022, which ended in March, is the company’s first full-year profit since 2020.

This is a turnaround from a loss of 143.6 billion yen in the previous fiscal year, surpassing the net profit of 28 billion yen in 2019.

Operating income was 120 billion yen, compared with an operating loss of 173.1 billion yen last year. Sales were 1.7 trillion yen, up 67% year-on-year.

on releaseANA said the airline industry was “improving rapidly”, adding that both domestic and international flights were benefiting from the easing of Covid-19-related restrictions.

Shares of the pharmaceutical company behind the popular weight-loss drug have risen 137% since the treatment was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Barclays Investment Bank expects the stock to rise further as the market for obesity drugs could exceed $100 billion.

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— Ganesh Rao

Chip stocks have rebounded this year after a slump in 2022.

The PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index is up nearly 17% year-to-date, making the sector one of the brightest spots in the market turmoil.

CNBC Pro is looking at semiconductor stocks where banks are gaining even more.

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— Tan Weizhen

Japan’s unemployment rate rose to 2.8% in March from 2.6% in February, according to government data.

The figure beats Reuters’ forecast of 2.5% and is the highest since January 2022. The national job openings-to-applicants ratio stands at 1.32, below Reuters’ forecast of 1.34.

Meanwhile, industrial production rose 0.8% m/m in March after rising 4.6% the previous month. That topped Reuters’ forecast of a 0.5% increase for the month.

Year-on-year, it fell 0.8% in March after falling 1.4% in February.

March numbers were led by autos, semiconductors and flat panel manufacturing equipment, while memory chips and active LCD panels saw declines.

— Lee Ji-hye

Korea’s industrial output is 7.6% reduction On a year-on-year basis, the decline is smaller than economists’ expectations of a 10.1% decline.

It was also the second month in a row that industrial output rose, following a 13.4% decline in January and an 8% decline in February.

On a monthly basis, industrial output rose 5.1%, reversing from a 2.7% decline in Feb.

— Lim Hijie

Japan’s capital consumer price index rose 3.5% in April, government data showed Friday.

A Reuters poll sees inflation rising 3.2% for the month after recording a slightly lower 3.2% in March.

Tokyo consumer price index excluding fresh food rises 3.5% — It is also above the central bank’s inflation target of 2%.

Immediately after the release, the Japanese Yen was at 133.83 against the US Dollar. The 10-year JGB yield is 0.476%, approaching the upper end of the central bank’s tolerance of 50 basis points above or below 0%.

The US economy expanded by 1.1% in the first quarter, a much slower pace than expected, according to the Commerce Department. Economists had forecast a 2% expansion, according to Dow Jones. The report showed stronger inflation, with prices up his 4% compared to estimates of 3.7%.

— Jeff Cox

Telecom services stocks hit their highest since February 2nd, with the sector up about 5.8%. Meta led the sector’s gains after reporting better-than-analyst-expected Q1 results. Tech stocks are up more than 15% for the last time.

— Sara Min

Shares of beleaguered regional bank First Republic rose on Thursday, taking a breather after two days of heavy selling.

The stock is up 71 cents, or about 12%, but is still trading below $7 a share.

First Republic shares closed at $16 a share on Monday before the bank announced its first quarter results.

First Republic and its advisers are trying to convince other banks to buy some of their assets at above-market rates so First Republic can rebuild its balance sheet, CNBC reported Wednesday. rice field.

Analysts are even more optimistic after Facebook’s parent company Meta posted better-than-expected quarterly results.

Companies like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup all updated their stock price targets.

“Developing more open source models (including LLM) and helping create an open ecosystem will allow META to stay at the forefront and increase the efficiency of our infrastructure over time. is another area of ​​focus,” Morgan Stanley’s Brian Nowak wrote Thursday.

Meta beat Wall Street estimates on both adjusted earnings per share and earnings on Wednesday, despite concerns over slowing ad sales. His stock price rose as much as 12% as a result.

JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said, “Meta revenue will accelerate NT’s revenue growth and continue to invest in long-term transformational technologies such as AI and the metaverse, while increasing the company’s cost discipline.” Shows efforts.

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— Brian Evans