Stock Market Today: Live Updates

Mainland China’s CSI 300 index rose almost 1%, extending its gains after opening 0.2%, as the country’s customs agency released upbeat trade data.

While April imports beat estimates, exports rose in line with expectations.

Chinese imports rose 8.4% in April, compared with estimates in a Reuters poll for a 4.8% increase year-on-year. Exports rose 1.5% year-on-year in April in US dollar terms, meeting expectations.

Both exports and imports were down year-over-year in March.

—Shreyashi Sanyal, Evelyn Cheng

The Bank of Japan may raise interest rates faster than the market expected, according to the summary of opinions from the central bank’s monetary policy meeting in April.

The bank said there was “high uncertainty” regarding economic activity and forecast prices in April.

The bank raised its inflation rate for fiscal 2024 in April, forecasting inflation of between 2.5% and 3%, up from 2.2% to 2.5% forecast in January.

The BoJ said that “if this outlook is realized, then in around two years the price stability target of 2% will be achieved in a sustainable and stable manner”, which will result in a future policy rate higher than that taken taken into account by the Bank of Japan. walk.

-Lim Hui Jie

Real wages in Japan fell 2.5% year-on-year in March, marking their 24th consecutive month of decline.

The 2.5% decline in March was faster than the 1.8% decline recorded in February, as cost increases outpaced nominal wages.

Nominal wages rose 0.6 percent from the same period last year to 301,193 yen ($1,938.66), slowing from the 1.4 percent increase % observed in February.

-Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Mitsubishi Motors Corp fell 5% in early trading after the Japanese automaker forecast a drop in profit for the current fiscal year.

Mitsubishi said on Wednesday it expects net profit of 144 billion yen ($926,784.06) for the fiscal year ending March 2025, about 7% lower than its net profit of 154.71 billion yen from last year.

Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday forecast a decline in operating profit for its current fiscal year as well.

The broader Topix index was up 0.4% on the day.

-Shreyashi Sanyal

Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are teaming up to offer their streaming services in a bundle, the entertainment giants announced Wednesday evening.

The plan will consolidate the companies’ streaming services – Disney+, Hulu and Max – into one package this summer. The offer will be available on both ad-supported and ad-free tiers.

WBD shares were up slightly after hours, while Disney was little changed.

CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman share details of the new plan here.

Airbnb reported strong quarterly results and was very optimistic about the summer season. One of the main reasons is that people eagerly travel for special events.

A large number – 500,000 – of guests booked Airbnb stays during the North American total eclipse last month. During the next Summer Olympics, reservations in Paris are five times higher than last year. Meanwhile, German cities are also seeing a doubling of Airbnb bookings during the European Football Cup this summer.

This proves once again that consumers are still spending a lot of money on travel and entertainment experiences, despite ongoing concerns about the economy.

— Robert Hum

Stock futures were little changed Wednesday, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its sixth consecutive positive session.

Futures contracts linked to the 30-stock Dow Jones fell 6 points, or 0.02%. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.06% while Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.1%.

—Brian Evans