Australia PMI, Japan Jibun Flash PMI, Lunar New Year holiday

New Zealand’s Auckland Airport saw total passenger volume for November reach 74% of levels seen in the fiscal year to June 2019, or the last full year unaffected by the pandemic, according to airport statistics. Monthly traffic update.

The proportion of international passengers has reached 67% of pre-pandemic levels, the statement said, adding that the majority of overseas flights that have recovered were short-haul flights from Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Road demand between New Zealand and North America regions has recovered to 86% of pre-pandemic levels, including two additional destinations in Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth) and New York.

– Jihe Lee

Higher interest rates have significant implications for companies with significant debt, as they are likely to face higher costs from increased borrowing.

With interest rates still rising, analysts at Bernstein believe that stocks with lower debt exposure and higher debt quality should outperform.

The investment bank has named a handful of low-debt global investment grade stocks out there that are likely to outperform.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Ganesh Rao

Australian “buy now pay later” company zoom It fell by more than 10% after a short-lived rally followed Quarterly results.

Zip traded down 15%, a sharp turnaround from its previous gain of more than 10% after it posted revenue growth of 12%.

The company said that “monthly cash burn continued to decline and is expected to improve further.” It said the current cash and liquidity position is “sufficient to see the company through positive cash flow” and expects to achieve positive cash EBITDA by the first half of fiscal 2024.

Here are some of the major economic events in the Asia-Pacific region that investors will be watching closely this week.

Stock markets in mainland China and Taiwan will remain closed until trading resumes on January 30.

On Tuesday, regional PMI readings for Japan and Australia will be in focus while most markets remain closed for Lunar New Year celebrations. – Except for Australia, Japan and Indonesia.

Inflation reports will be in focus on Wednesday as Australia and New Zealand will release CPI readings for the fourth quarter of 2022. Singapore will publish inflation data for December.

The Hong Kong market is scheduled to resume trading on Thursday.

Fourth-quarter GDP for South Korea and the Philippines will be published on Thursday, while the Bank of Japan will release its summary of views from its last monetary policy meeting in January. Japan will also release its producer price index for services on Thursday.

Japan’s core CPI readings for Tokyo will be a barometer of where monetary policy is headed.

Australian PPI and trade data will also be closely watched ahead of the RBA meeting in the first week of February.

– Jihe Lee

The National Australia Bank’s monthly business survey showed business conditions deteriorating for December with a reading of 12 points, down from November’s reading of 20 points.

reflects the survey deteriorating trading conditionsprofitability, and employment, NAB said.

“The key message from the December monthly survey is that growth momentum slowed significantly in late 2022 while price pressures and cost of acquisition likely peaked,” said Alan Oster, chief economist at NAB.

Meanwhile, business confidence in December rose 3 points to -1, an improved reading from -4 points in November.

– Jihe Lee

Japan’s au Jibun Bank Flash Manufacturing PMI in January remained unchanged for the second consecutive month at 48.9, below the 50 level that separates contraction and growth from the previous month.

reading” she indicated The strongest deterioration of the joint in health [of] Japanese manufacturing sector since October 2020,” S&P Global said.

Banc au Jibun’s composite production index rose to 50.8 in January, slightly above a reading of 49.7 in December.

Flash business activity rose further with a reading of 52.4, up from December’s reading of 51.1.

– Jihe Lee

After more than two years of regulatory crackdowns and a pandemic-induced recession, Chinese tech names are back on Wall Street’s radar, with one stock in particular standing out as a top pick for many.

Professional subscribers can Read more here.

– Xavier Ong

Federal Reserve officials next week will almost certainly agree to another slowdown in rate hikes while also debating when to stop the increases altogether, according to the Federal Reserve. Wall Street Journal report.

The Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled to meet to set rates from January 31 to February. 1, with the markets Pricing is at almost 100% chance A quarter point increase in the central bank’s benchmark rate. More importantly, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday Sees an increase of 0.25 percentage points as a preferred step for the next meeting.

However, Waller said he doesn’t think the Fed is done tightening yet, and many other central bankers have backed that idea in recent days.

Slowing the pace of the increases may provide an opportunity to assess the impact of the increases so far on the economy, the Journal report said, citing public statements from policymakers. A series of price increases starting in March 2022 resulted in increases of 4.25 percentage points.

Market prices currently suggest quarter-point hikes at the next two meetings, a period of inaction, and then a reduction of up to half a point by the end of 2023, according to CME Group data.

However, many officials, Including Governor Lyle Brainard And New York Fed President John Williams used the expression “stay the course” to describe the course of policy going forward.

– Jeff Cox

The Nasdaq Composite was up more than 2.2% during mid-day trading Monday, supported by battered tech stocks.

The move put the tech-heavy index on pace for a consecutive day of gains that exceeded 2%. the The index ended up 2.66% on Friday.

The rise in semiconductor stocks helped push the index higher. Tesla And an AppleMeanwhile, it rose 7.7% and 3.2%, respectively, as the reopening of China raised hopes of boosting their business. Western Digital and advanced micro devices It rose by 8% each Qualcomm And nvidia jumped about 7%.

Information technology was the best performing S&P 500 sector, up 2.7%. That was in part due to gains in the chip segment. Telecom services added 1.9%, supported by the likes of NetflixAnd Meta platformsAnd the alphabet And Match set.

– Samantha Sobin

Inflation may have shown to be quite high in the past, but the shift to a 25 basis point hike at the next Fed policy meeting is a “mistake”, according to Allianz chief economic advisor Mohamed El-Erian.

“I’m in a very, very small camp, and I think they shouldn’t go to 25 basis points, they should do 50,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday. “They should take advantage of this growth window that we’re in, they should take advantage of where the market is, they should try to tighten the financial conditions because I think we still have an inflation problem.”

He said inflation had shifted from goods to the services sector, but it could re-emerge if energy prices rise as China reopens.

El-Erian expects inflation to plateau at around 4%. This, he said, would put the Fed in a tough spot on whether it should continue to crush the economy to get to 2%, or promise that level in the future, and hoped investors could tolerate a steady 3% to 4% rate in the near term.

“This is probably the best outcome,” he said of the latter.

– Samantha Sobin

An earnings recession is imminent this year, according to Michael Wilson, an equity strategist at Morgan Stanley.

“Our view has not changed as we expect the US earnings path to disappoint consensus expectations and current valuations,” he said in a note to clients on Sunday.

Some positive developments in recent weeks – such as China’s continued reopening and lower natural gas prices in Europe – have contributed to some investors viewing the market outlook more optimistically.

However, Wilson advises investors to stay bearish on the stock, noting that price action is the main influence of this year’s rally.

“The rally this year has been led by low-quality stocks and short selling,” he said. “It also saw a strong move in cyclical stocks relative to the defenders.”

Wilson based his prediction on fringe disappointment, and he believes the issue is growing. Many industries are already facing slowing revenues, as well as ballooning inventories, and less productive employees.

“It’s simply a matter of timing and scale,” Wilson said. “We advise investors to stay focused on fundamentals and ignore false signals and misleading reversals in the mirror hall of the bear market.”

– Hakyung Kim