Asia Markets Live Updates: Japanese GDP data shrinks

The Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing company said there was no damage to its facilities at the construction site of its factory in Arizona. According to ReutersThis came after reports of an explosion at the factory.

A worker at a TSMC plant in Arizona was hospitalized with serious injuries after an explosion The Arizona Republic reported this earlierciting the authorities.

Firefighters from multiple departments responded to the hazardous materials call Wednesday afternoon, The Arizona Republic reported.

The chip manufacturing company said in a statement that none of its employees or construction workers at the site reported any injuries, according to Reuters.

– Shreyashi Sanyal – Reuters

Chinese real estate stocks rose after a report that the country is considering buying millions of unsold homes from struggling developers in an attempt to support the faltering real estate market.

The Hang Seng Property Index on the mainland in Hong Kong rose more than 6%.

Hong Kong-listed Logan Group shares rose by 11.59% and Longfor Group by 14.63%. China Vanke shares rose by 14.78%. CIVI Holding Private Development shares jumped 25%.

Wednesday, Bloomberg News It was reported that China’s State Council was collecting comments from government agencies and several provinces about local state-owned enterprises tasked with purchasing unsold homes at deep discounts using loans provided by state banks.

-Li Ying Shan

Australia seasonally adjusted Unemployment rate rises 4.1% In April, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This was an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the revised reading of 3.9% in March.

“The employment-to-population ratio remained steady at 64.0% in April, suggesting that recent employment growth is broadly in line with population growth. This suggests that the labor market remains tight, albeit less tight than in late 2022 and early 2022.” 2023,” said Björn. Jarvis, head of labor statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, said.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Posted by Singapore Airlines Standard operating profit at S$2.73 billion ($2.03 billion) for the 2023 financial year ending March 31, surpassing the previous record of S$2.69 billion set last year.

Net profit also reached a new record high of S$2.67 billion, 24% higher than last year. Full-year revenue rose 7% year-on-year to S$19.01 billion.

The carrier, which was named the world’s best airline for 2023 by Skytrax, said the performance was driven by higher passenger revenues, despite a decline in freight revenues.

In light of the results, SIA’s Board of Directors declared a dividend of 38 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the full financial year to 48 cents.

– Lim Hui Ji

Japan’s economy contracted by 2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, according to a report Official data.

The GDP reading showed a deeper-than-expected contraction in the first quarter, compared to an expected contraction of 1.5% in the first quarter. Reuters poll.

The latest data is also likely to put the Bank of Japan’s plans to raise interest rates at risk.

The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0%-0.1% at its last monetary policy meeting on April 26, and said its monetary policy would depend on future economic conditions.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Citi recently named one under-the-radar company to buy on a “data and AI opportunity.”

The company said its total addressable market has tripled, thanks to the AI ​​opportunity, Citi noted.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

-Weezin Tan

The best-performing “Magnificent Seven” stock midway through the second quarter was Google and YouTube owner Alphabet, up about 14.15%. Apple shares are up about 10.8% so far this quarter, while Nvidia shares are up 4.8% and Amazon shares are up 2.4%. All four stocks are outperforming the S&P 500, which is up about 2.1%.

By contrast, Microsoft (+0.6%), Tesla (-0.7%), and Meta Platforms (-1%) all trailed the S&P 500 in Q2.

The best-performing sector this quarter was the S&P 500 Utilities Index, which rose 9.9% and more than doubled the performance of the second-place S&P 500 Communications Utilities Index, which rose 3.9%. The S&P 500 IT Index (+2.8%) also outperforms the S&P 500 Index.

All eight other sectors in the S&P 500 trailed the entire benchmark this quarter, led by real estate, which fell 2.1%; Consumer Discretionary, 2.0% off; and health care, down 1.5%.

-Scott Schnepper

With the CPI showing inflation eased slightly in April, the “lack of a bad surprise” was welcome, in contrast to the disappointingly high readings in March, said Mark Hamrick, chief economist at Bankrate.

However, he noted that interest rates will remain higher for longer.

“With headline increases of 3.4% year-on-year and 3.6% in fundamentals (excluding food and energy), these rates remain disturbingly high,” Hamrick said. “The situation of the battle against inflation requires that interest rates remain high in the near term.”

– Michelle Fox

Many clean energy stocks rose this week, in some cases without company-specific news, leaving some investors wondering what was behind the gains.

Tuesday’s rise was not a reaction to the U.S. imposing tariffs on China, said Pavel Molchanov, equity analyst at Raymond James. Molchanov said some of the stocks that rebounded were not related to tariff policy.

Yesterday’s bounce “was just a rally in stocks, with the most short-sold stocks making the biggest gains,” the analyst told clients in a research note on Wednesday.

Residential solar company SunPower has seen some of the strongest gains in clean technology, rising 34% since the start of the week.

“Yesterday, cleantech investors got a reminder — if anything was needed — about how emotionally impactful these stocks are on a daily basis,” Molchanov said.

-Spencer Kimball