by Chinese online gaming stocks rise as crackdowns on the sector appear to be easing
The New Zealand central bank hints at further rate hikes
Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Governor Adrian Orr said the bank’s sole aim is to bring the official interest rate to a point where inflation can be crushed.
Orr’s comments come after the central bank delivered its biggest rate hike of 75 basis points.
“Our core inflation rate is too high,” Orr said in a press briefing, adding that the central bank is “far down the path of the tightening cycle.”
In a separate press release shortly after the decision, RBNZ said: “Members of the committee agreed that monetary conditions needed to be tightened further
— Lee Ying Shan
BYD shares fall after Berkshire Hathaway cut stake
shares of BYD The Hong Kong-listed stock traded 2.64% lower after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced it had reduced its stake in the Chinese electric-vehicle maker.
According to an HKEX filing, the company sold 3.2 million shares worth approximately HK$630 million (US$80.6 million), reducing its stake in the company from 16.28% to 15.99%. as the registration showed.
Separately, the company also announced it would raise prices on some of its EV models, according to Reuters.
– Jihye Lee
Kuaishou, Baidu shares rise after earnings announcement
Xiaomi expects sales to decline in the third quarter
xiaomi a decline in sales is expected for the third quarter of 2022, according to the mean of estimates from a Refinitiv survey.
The company is expected to report a 9.66% drop in revenue to 70.52 billion yuan (US$9.87 billion) for the July-September quarter, compared with 78.06 billion yuan in the same period last year .
The expected drop is likely due to “tepid smartphone sales” as well as the weak macro environment and consumer sentiment, Daiwa Capital Markets wrote in a note.
Xiaomi shares fell as much as 1.72% in morning trade ahead of the release and was last about 1% lower.
– Lee Ying Shan
New Zealand dollar strengthens after biggest rate hike
The New Zealand dollar rose to 0.6192 against the dollar after the central bank hiked interest rates by 75 basis points, the largest hike on record.
The NZD was last traded at 0.6170 against the dollar and the NZX 50 Index in New Zealand fell 0.8%.
The 10-year New Zealand government bond yield briefly hit 4.305% shortly after the decision and was last traded at 4.235%. Yields move inversely with prices and one basis point equals 0.01%.
– Lee Ying Shan
CNBC Pro: Goldman says EV batteries are becoming ‘critical’ and names 2 stock picks
According to Goldman Sachs, the batteries in electric vehicles are becoming “crucially important” as part of the energy transition.
The investment bank names two top stocks for the electric vehicle battery sector, giving one a nearly 70% gain.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Wheat Tan
Singapore releases restricted GDP estimates for 2022
According to forecasts by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore’s economy is expected to grow by around 3.5% in 2022, citing a softening outlook for external demand following Europe’s energy crisis and ongoing China-related restrictions.
The number is a narrowed estimate from the previously forecast range of 3% to 4% — and reflects annual growth of 4.1% in the third quarter and 1.1% growth sequentially.
The ministry also said it sees the country’s GDP growth between 0.5% and 2.5% in 2023.
– Jihye Lee
CNBC Pro: UBS says self-driving cars could become a $100 billion market in China — and names stocks to play into it
EVs are rapidly gaining traction, particularly in China, the world’s largest EV market.
But UBS believes autonomous driving will be an even bigger megatrend than electrification — with a market size in China alone of around $100 billion by 2030.
According to UBS, investors can take advantage of this megatrend.
Pro subscribers can read more here.
– Zavier Ong
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand hikes rates by 75 basis points
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand raised its official interest rate by 75 basis points, the largest increase on record, to 4.25%.
The decision is in line with analysts’ expectations, according to a Reuters poll.
It is the ninth straight hike since the RBNZ first began its rate hike cycle in October 2021, five of which were hikes of 50 basis points.
New Zealand’s inflation currently stands at 7.2%, just below the highs of the last three decades.
— Lee Ying Shan
Investors should switch to second-tier Chinese tech stocks: UBS Global Wealth Management
Investors should take advantage of the bumpy performance of Chinese tech stocks to invest in smaller and less established companies, according to Eva Lee, head of Greater China Equities at UBS Global Wealth Management’s chief investment office.
“Under the current regulation, the second tier players will do better than the top players. Use this opportunity to move to “tier two” companies, such as those with resilient incomes, she told CNBC’s Street Signs Asia.
In addition, tech giants are perceived as “macro recovery”. [proxies]and the road to an eventual full reopening will be “ebb and flow, it’s getting choppy,” she said.
“We’re moving there eventually, but it takes time,” she said.
– Abigail Ng
Stocks rise, S&P 500 closes above key 4k mark for first time since September.
Stocks rose on Tuesday, with all three major moving averages up more than 1% as Wall Street bet that rate hikes and inflation will ease later in the year. The S&P 500 also closed at a level not seen since September.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 397.82 points, or 1.18% higher, at 34,098.10. The Nasdaq Composite was also up 1.36% to 11,174.41.
The S&P 500 rose 1.36% to close at 4,003.58, the first close above 4,000 since September.
– Carmen Reinicke
84% of today’s 19 S&P 500 52-week highs are all-time records
Nineteen stocks in the S&P 500 made 52-week highs so far Tuesday, and of those, 16 (84%) also made all-time highs. Three of the 19 (TRV, MRK, IBM) are also in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and two of them are below all-time highs:
- General Parts Co. (GPC), highest since a 1948 IPO
- O’Reilly Auto (ORLY), all-time high since going public in 1993
- TJX Cos. (TJX), all-time high since going public in 1987
- General Mills (GIS), all-time highs since 1927
- Monster Beverage (MNST), all-time high until its predecessor’s Nasdaq listing in 1992
- Pepsico (PEP), the highest ever, dating back to the 1965 merger of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay
- Marathon Petroleum (MPC), all-time high dating back to Marathon Oil’s spin-off in 2011
- Aflac Inc. (AFL), all-time back by CNBC data history in 1973
- Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG), all-time high dating back to the 1984 IPO
- Globe Life (GL), all-time high back to previous data in 1980
- MetLife (MET), all-time high back to the IPO in 2000
- Progressive (PGR), all-time high since IPO in 1971
- Travelers (TRV), all-time high back to Citi’s spin-off in 2002
- Gilead Sciences (GILD), highest since April 2020
- Merck & Co. (MRK), all-time high in CNBC history since 1978
- PACCAR (PCAR), all-time high dating back to 1971 IPO
- Quanta Services (PWR), all-time high since its 1998 IPO
- Snap-On (SNA), highest since June 2021
- International Business Machines (IBM), highest since February 2020
There were two 52-week lows in the S&P 500 early Tuesday:
- Tesla (TSLA), lowest since Nov 2020
- Medtronic (MDT), lowest since March 2020
No comment.
– Scott Schnipper and Christopher Hayes
