Standard Chartered shares jump because it raises forecast, broadcasts $1 billion share buyback
Hong Kong-listed shares of Standard Chartered rose nearly 4% shortly after the firm raised its forecasts and announced a $1 billion share buyback in its fourth quarter results.
The bank saw a 28% jump in profits for the fourth quarter of 2022 and 18% for the full-year of 2022, the release said.
“We expect many of the markets during which we operate to proceed their recent momentum with GDP growth within the Asian economies at above 5% over the subsequent two years being pivotal to progressive global recovery,” the corporate said in its earnings statement.
Coal prices seeing softness but outlook stays positive, Whitehaven CEO says
Coal prices are moderating however the outlook stays positive for the second half of the 12 months, said Paul Flynn, CEO and managing director at Whitehaven Coal.
“You have seen coal prices come off their wonderful highs and are hovering more around $200 mark. Now that is obviously, historically, a excellent number still, and we’re very completely happy with that,” Flynn told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
Flynn explained a less severe winter within the northern hemisphere is contributing to the softness in coal prices.
“We have seen unbelievable prices throughout the first six months. The second six months, I feel will structurally be simpler, ” he said.
Flynn said the outlook for coal prices remained positive for the second half because the structural underpinnings improve throughout the course of the 12 months.
— Sumathi Bala
ASML says ex-China worker had misappropriated data regarding its critical chip technology
Semiconductor company ASML said it recently discovered that a former worker in China had misappropriated data related to its proprietary technology.
“Now we have experienced unauthorized misappropriation of information regarding proprietary technology by a (now) former worker in China,” ASML said in its annual report.
Since 2018, the U.S. has reportedly put pressure on the Dutch government to stop ASML shipping EUV machines to China.
Shares of Chinese semiconductor firm SMIC traded 0.24% higher on Wednesday, and counterpart Hua Hong Semiconductor saw a 1.1% drop in its share price.
Market leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, who’s one in every of ASML’s customers, traded 0.76% higher.
—Arjun Kharpal, Lim Hui Jie
Japan trade deficit widens to almost $26 billion in January
Japan’s trade deficit has expanded to three.5 trillion yen ($26 billion) for January, widening by 59% in comparison with the two.2 trillion recorded in the identical period a 12 months ago, government data showed.
On an annualized basis, exports rose 3.5% higher at 6.55 trillion yen, while imports surged 17.8% to only over $10 trillion .
Following the announcement, the Japanese yen strengthened barely against the US dollar, trading at 133.84.
Australia jobs data upend expectations as unemployment is available in higher
Australia’s unemployment rate for January increased 0.2 percentage points from December 2022 to three.7%, higher than economists expectations that it could remain flat at 3.5%.
This was the very best jobless rate since last May, because the variety of unemployed climbed by 21,900 to 523,200.
Employment fell by about 11,500 people from December to January, in contrast to expectations that it could rise by 20,000. This was a 0.1% drop in comparison with December, but a 3% rise on an annualized basis.
Following this, the Australian dollar weakened against the US dollar, trading at 0.6872.
CNBC Pro: Tech’s on a roll. But some market pros aren’t convinced
Certainly one of 2022’s worst-performing sectors is making quite a turnaround — investors are desirous about tech again, after shunning it for the higher a part of last 12 months.
But not everyone seems to be convinced. “That enthusiasm for aggressive technology-oriented stocks within the last couple of months is strictly what you get in a bear market rally,” an investor tells CNBC.
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Zavier Ong
Bitcoin jumps to highest since mid-August 2022
Prices of Bitcoin and Etereum rose on Thursday – Bitcoin rising 11.28% previously 24 hours to $24,637.75, in keeping with prices by CoinMetrics. Ethereum gained 8.76% previously 24 hours to $1,685.13.
Bitcoin last breached $25,000 on August 15, 2022, Refinitiv data showed.
CoinDesk reported the quantity of traders liquidating saw a surge of over $60 million, citing data from Coinglass. Ethereum also hovered around the very best level since mid-August last 12 months.
CNBC Pro: This investor’s fund returned 15% in a nasty 12 months for stocks. He shares his playbook and bets for 2023
2022 was a nasty 12 months for stocks around the globe: Each the S&P 500 and MSCI World index were down nearly 20% for the 12 months.
Yet one Asia veteran investor managed to return around 15% for his fund.
Singapore-based investor Chua Soon Hock, founder and chief investment officer at Asia Genesis Asset Management, tells CNBC Pro about his best trades last 12 months that contributed to his fund’s performance — and what he’s betting on this 12 months.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan
Investors are taunting the Fed, top JPMorgan strategist says
JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic thinks investors are fiddling with fire, as stocks proceed rising despite the Federal Reserve tightening monetary policy.
“There may be an old adage, ‘don’t fight the Fed,’ but this behavior shouldn’t be just fighting but in addition taunting the Fed with crypto, meme stocks, and unprofitable corporations responding best to Fed communications,” Kolanovic, the bank’s chief global market strategist, said in a note to clients.
— Fred Imbert
Rally won’t last as Fed moves closer to six% on rates of interest, Niles says
The Federal Reserve could move rates of interest closer to six%, said Dan Niles, founding father of the Satori Fund. And he said that could possibly be bad news for those hoping for a continued market rally.
“I feel the Fed, quite truthfully, goes to get higher to six% before they stop raising,” Niles said on CNBC’s “Tech Check.”
The central bank last hiked rates of interest by 25 basis points at its meeting earlier this month. That moved the goal rate for rates of interest to between 4.5% and 4.75%.
Market observers and participants have disagreed on when the Fed will stop raising rates of interest. Those predictions have helped drive positioning to this point this 12 months.
Meanwhile, the market has rallied for the reason that start of the brand new 12 months as investors looked past a negative 2022. The Nasdaq Composite has led the averages up, gaining 14.5% for the reason that start of the 12 months as investors grew increasingly optimistic about growth stocks on hopes that the Fed will change course on its rate of interest mountaineering campaign.
But Niles said that rally may fade into the second half of the 12 months, as data more clearly shows investors should not be overly optimistic just yet.
“A number of things which are driving the market … to this point in the primary half of the 12 months, you are not going to have the ability to disprove until the back half of the 12 months,” he said.
— Alex Harring
Stocks close higher after choppy day of trading
Stocks rallied into Wednesday’s close to finish the day higher following a surprise beat on January’s retail sales report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 39 points, or 0.11%, rallying greater than 250 points from its intraday low.
The S&P 500 ticked up 0.25%, lifted by shares of SolarEdge and Generac, which gained 9.05% and eight%, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.92%, boosted by shares of Airbnb, which surged 13.35% after beating earnings expectations. Gains in Tesla, Rivian and Lucid also helped lead the index higher.
Thus far, all three indexes are on target to finish the week higher. The Dow is currently up 0.76% week up to now, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are up 1.40% and three.01% in the identical timeframe.
—Carmen Reinicke
U.S. will default on its debt between July and September if Congress doesn’t raise debt ceiling, CBO says
The US Treasury will exhaust its emergency measures to forestall a debt default sometime between July and September unless Congress raises the $31.4 trillion debt limit, the Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday.
The newest projection notes that the ultimate date shall be determined by tax revenues the IRS receives in April. Should those revenues decline significantly from CBO’s estimates, “the extraordinary measures could possibly be exhausted sooner, and Treasury could run out of funds before July,” CBO director Phillip Swagel said in a press release Wednesday.
The U.S. reached the present debt limit in January of this 12 months, at which point Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen initiated a series of established steps, often called the “extraordinary measures,” that allowed the federal government to proceed borrowing money to satisfy its obligations.
Read here for the total report.
— Christina Wilkie