Live updates from Asian markets: Japan GDP data declines

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company said there was no damage to its facilities at the construction site of its Arizona factory, according to Reuters, following a report of an explosion at the factory .

A worker at the TSMC factory in Arizona was taken to the hospital with serious injuries following an explosion, the Arizona Republic reported earlier, citing authorities.

The Arizona Republic reported that firefighters from several departments responded to a hazardous materials call Wednesday afternoon.

The chipmaker said in a statement that none of its employees or construction workers on site had reported injuries, according to Reuters.

—Shreyashi Sanyal, Reuters

Chinese real estate stocks rose following a report that the country was considering buying millions of unsold homes from struggling developers in a bid to prop up its struggling real estate market.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Mainland Properties index rose more than 6%.

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Logan Group gained 11.59% and Longfor Group gained 14.63%. China Vanke climbed 14.78%. Private developer CIFI Holdings jumped 25%.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that China’s State Council was taking feedback from government entities and several provinces on local state-owned companies tasked with buying unsold homes at deep discounts using loans offered by state-owned banks. State.

—Lee Ying Shan

Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose 4.1% in April, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This is an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the revised figure of 3.9% recorded in March.

“The employment-to-population ratio remained stable at 64.0% in April, indicating that recent employment growth is broadly keeping pace with population growth. This suggests that the labor market remains tight, although less tense only at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023,” Bjorn said. said Jarvis, head of labor statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

-Shreyashi Sanyal

Singapore Airlines posted a record operating profit of SG$2.73 billion ($2.03 billion) for its 2023 financial year ending March 31, surpassing the previous record of SG$2.69 billion set l ‘last year.

Net profit also hit a new record of SG$2.67 billion, 24% higher than a year ago. Full-year revenue increased 7% year-on-year to SG$19.01 billion.

The carrier, named the world’s best airline in 2023 by Skytrax, said its performance was driven by rising passenger revenues, even as cargo revenues declined.

In light of these results, SIA’s board of directors announced a dividend of 38 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the full year to 48 cents.

-Lim Hui Jie

The Japanese economy contracted by an annualized 2% in the first quarter of 2024, according to official data.

The GDP figure showed a stronger-than-expected contraction in the first quarter, compared with a 1.5% contraction expected in a Reuters poll..

The latest data could also jeopardize the Bank of Japan’s plans to raise interest rates.

The BOJ kept its key rate unchanged between 0% and 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 a little-known company to buy a “data and AI opportunity.”

Citi noted that the company said its total addressable market had tripled, driven by its artificial intelligence opportunity.

CNBC Pro subscribers can learn more here.

— Weizhen Tan

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

In contrast, Microsoft (+0.6%), Tesla (-0.7%), and Meta Platforms (-1%) all lagged the S&P 500 in the second quarter.

The best performing sector this quarter was the S&P 500 Utilities, up 9.9% and more than twice as much as the second-placed S&P 500 Communication Services, up 3.9%. The S&P 500 Information Technology (+2.8%) also outperformed the S&P 500.

The other eight S&P 500 sectors lagged the broader benchmark this quarter, led by real estate, down 2.1%; Discretionary consumption, down 2.0%; and health care, down 1.5%.

-Scott Schnipper

While the Consumer Price Index shows inflation slowed slightly in April, the “lack of any nasty surprises” is welcome, unlike the disappointing numbers in March, said Mark Hamrick, senior economist at Bankrate.

That said, interest rates will remain high for longer, he noted.

“With an overall increase of 3.4% year-over-year and 3.6% in the core (excluding food and energy), these numbers remain extremely high,” Hamrick said. “The state of the fight against inflation requires that interest rates remain high in the near term.”

— Michelle Fox

Several clean energy stocks have rebounded this week, in some cases without company-specific news, leaving some investors wondering what’s behind the gains.

Pavel Molchanov, a stock analyst at Raymond James, said Tuesday’s rally was not a reaction to tariffs imposed by the United States on China. Some of the stocks that have rebounded have nothing to do with pricing policy, Molchanov said.

Yesterday’s rebound “was simply a stock market rally, with the most heavily shorted stocks gaining the most,” the analyst told clients in a research note Wednesday.

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

“Yesterday, cleantech investors received a reminder – if one was needed – of how these stocks can move emotionally on a daily basis,” Molchanov said.

-Spencer Kimball