Asia markets mixed ahead of US vote on debt ceiling agreement; Hong Kong braced for new lows

Strategists at Goldman Sachs and Bank of America see more upside for Japanese stocks amid the recent rally, with the Nikkei 225 closing at 31,328.16 – hitting a three-decade high.

Strategists at Goldman Sachs wrote in a research note on Monday that the position of foreign investors on stocks in Japan remains weak.

“While we believe the positioning is stretched among short-term investors such as CTAs (Commodity Trade Advisors), the positioning remains weak among long-term foreign investors,” said strategists Kazunori Tatebe and Bruce Kirk.

Masashi Akutsu and Tony Lin, strategists at Bank of America, added in a research note last week that they see room for more outflows into cash stocks — raising their year-end forecasts for Japanese indices.

They see Topix rise to 2,300 points, a further 7% gain from current levels, with a bull case for it rising further to 2,400 points. They also see the Nikkei 225 rise to 32,500 points, an additional 4% from levels seen on Tuesday morning – with an upside at 33,500 points.

– Jihe Lee

After Nvidia’s stellar earnings report and subsequent stock rally, CEO Jensen Huang predicts that the world is entering a “new era of computing.”

Speaking at the Computex Forum in Taiwan. He says that anyone can be a programmer, just by talking to a computer, and the required functions will appear.

Programmers will no longer need to write lines of code, only to have the dreaded “failed to compile” displayed due to a missing semicolon.

“This computer doesn’t care how you program it, it will try to understand what you mean, because it has an incredibly large language model ability. So the programming barrier is incredibly low,” Huang noted.

Nvidia says generative AI is “the most important computing platform of our generation” as people and businesses move to create new applications and benefit from generative AI in the process.

Read the full story here.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Toyota global sales It’s up about 5% year-over-year In April, with strong domestic market demand from Japan and China.

Sales to Japan saw the largest gains, up 21.5% compared to April 2022 as parts shortages eased.

China sales saw a year-on-year jump of 46.3% to 162,554 units in April, bouncing back from the impact of Covid-19 on the economy a year earlier.

In contrast, sales to Europe fell 22.8% to 75,869 units. Toyota said that despite strong demand, sales were lower due to the suspension of operations due to the impact of shortages in semiconductors and other parts.

Toyota shares closed up 0.6 percent on Tuesday.

Building approvals in Australia fell 8.1% month-on-month to 11,594 – marking their lowest level since April 2012 – when approved units totaled 10,860, Government data showed.

Private sector residences fell 3.8% to 7,939 while private sector residences excluding homes fell 16.5% to 3,469.

Meanwhile, the value of total buildings increased by 4.7% – the value of new residential buildings decreased by 2.7%, while the value of non-residential buildings increased by 13.5%.

– Jihe Lee

Exports from Hong Kong fell further in April and were down 13% year-on-year — extending the 1.5% declines seen in the previous month, Government data show up.

Hong Kong’s total exports have seen an overall decline since it recorded an annual growth of 44% in January 2021. Exports fell by more than 36% in February this year.

Hong Kong’s imports fell sharply in April, down 11.9% year-on-year, and continuing their 0.6% decline in March.

– Jihe Lee

Shares of Softbank Group fell nearly 4% on Tuesday, dragging losses on Japan’s Topix index.

This comes after Arm, the chip designer owned by Softbank, announced its launch of a new technology for mobile devices and Taiwanese smartphone chip maker MediaTek. Say it You will use it for your next generation product.

SoftBank shares rose 8.8 percent on Monday.

Japan’s unemployment rate fell slightly to 2.6% in April, below March’s figure of 2.8%.

This was also less than the 2.7% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Government data showed The jobs-to-applicants ratio was 1.32, unchanged from the March number.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Markets have rebounded this year despite the economic uncertainty in the US.

Some parts of the markets are very expensive right now, but analysts say some segments are still cheap.

They name four stocks that are still cheap to buy, including one in technology.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Wizen tan

Nvidia’s huge dividend has investors excited.

In a May 25th note, BofA said Nvidia’s “rosy view” when it comes to data centers and AI reaffirmed its positive view of the AI ​​server hardware supply chain.

It named three global stocks to play the role of Nvidia and AI.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Wizen tan

President Joe Biden and congressional leaders reached a tentative agreement over the weekend to avoid a US default, with the bill put to a vote as soon as this week.

House Majority Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden have been at odds for weeks over raising the debt ceiling, with the first signs of real progress emerging last week. Key provisions that necessitated a compromise included keeping non-defense spending flat for the next two years as well as increasing business requirements for food stamp benefits.

However, the bill would need the support of both Republicans and Democrats to bring it to President Biden’s desk before the so-called “X date” of June 5, the earliest the Treasury Department has indicated the United States might default.

– Brian Evans

China’s May PMI readings along with the Bank of Thailand meeting, inflation reports and South Korea’s GDP will be in focus this week.

On Monday, Hong Kong trade data for April will be published after the territory saw a 0.6% contraction in imports and a 1.5% contraction in exports in March.

Japan’s unemployment rate for April as well as Australian building approvals for the same month will be released on Tuesday. The Thai industrial production for the month of April will also be announced.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics will publish the Economic PMI for May. Economists polled by Reuters expect the reading to remain below the 50 mark that separates contraction from growth at 49.4, after April’s reading of 49.2.

The Bank of Thailand is scheduled to announce its interest rate decision on the same day.

South Korea’s April industrial production on Wednesday is expected to show a further decline of 7.9% in April, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Retail sales for South Korea and Japan are also scheduled to be released on the same day. India will release its GDP for the third quarter of the year. South Korea will also publish its latest trade figures along with Australian retail sales.

Indonesian markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday, while Singapore will have a market holiday on June 2. South Korea’s GDP and latest inflation readings will be released on Friday.

– Jihe Lee