4 hours ago
ASX hits two-week high, led by mining and banking stocks
Australian miners, banks and technology companies led the S&P/ASX 200 to its highest level in two weeks on Thursday.
The index is currently trading at 7,120 points, its highest level since March 10.
Thursday’s top gainers included miners BHP and Rio Tinto, up 2.37% and 1.61% respectively, and the “Big Four” banks, which posted gains of 0.8% to 1.7% .
The “Big Four” banks refer to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, ANZ Group and Westpac Banking Corp.
Tech firms like Buy Now, Pay Later Zip rose as much as 12% to hit a five-week high before retreating to 7.41%, while mobile payments company Block Inc rose 4.28% .
— Lim Hui Jie
2 hours ago
Microsoft’s new cybersecurity chatbot can address talent shortage, says vice president
Microsoft’s vice president of security reckons a product like Microsoft Security Copilot — the tech giant’s newly launched artificial intelligence cybersecurity chatbot on Tuesday — can help alleviate the existing cybersecurity skills shortage.
Microsoft Security Copilot is a joint project with OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology. Microsoft announced a multi-billion dollar investment in the ChatGPT maker in January.
“There is a chronic shortage of talent in cybersecurity,” Microsoft security vice president Andrew Conway said on CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Thursday. An annual study of the cybersecurity workforce found that there are 3.4 million cybersecurity workforce shortages worldwide.
Microsoft said it receives more than 65 trillion threat signals a day and such a product can help cybersecurity professionals better understand signals and identify breaches.
“We already integrate Security Copilot in [our] ecosystem of [security] products, so this is important work now and even more so because of the talent shortage we see in cybersecurity roles,” said Conway.
– Sheila Chiang
3 hours ago
CNBC Pro: India has big production plans. Goldman names 2 global stocks that should benefit – one with 60% upside potential
India has a massive plan to boost manufacturing – and tech companies in Greater China will be the main beneficiaries, according to Goldman Sachs.
The investment bank called the plan a “significant opportunity” for such firms and named two stocks for purchase, including a global tech giant. One of them has an upside potential of almost 60%.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Wheat Tan
5 hours before
Alibaba shares surge 2% after the company held an investor call
Hong Kong-listed Alibaba shares rose as much as 2.7% in early trade and was last up nearly 1.8% after Alibaba executives reviewed the nature of the recent restructuring announcement to split into six entities, each with the option , to raise outside funds, have further clarified reach the public.
CEO Daniel Zhang told investors on a conference call Thursday morning, “Alibaba will be more of an asset and capital operator than a business operator in relation to the group’s companies.”
He added that the entities announced in the restructuring will have their own CEOs and boards, and Alibaba will retain the board seats in the short term.
After the restructuring process has taken place and the separate entities have gone public, Alibaba will “continue to assess the strategic importance of these companies,” CFO Toby Xu said on the earnings call, adding that it “will determine whether to retain control.” or not”.
5 hours before
CreditSights maintains Alibaba’s “Outperform” recommendation
CreditSights maintained its “Outperform” rating for Alibaba following the business structure overhaul, adding that the plans will not have a major impact on the company’s creditworthiness.
“We see a limited short-term impact of the restructuring on Alibaba’s debt metrics as all six entities are consolidated and controlled by the group,” CreditSights said in a statement.
Funding potential from each entity, particularly entities that have been unprofitable, is expected to have a net positive effect on the creditworthiness of the group as a whole.
“We believe the company’s restructuring will reduce the risk of Alibaba burning cash to fund unprofitable businesses,” the statement added.
“We anticipate that the potential separate fundraising (including IPOs) of these businesses will help reduce cash burn for Alibaba, which we believe represents positive credit quality,” it said.
– Jihye Lee
6 hours ago
Japan aims for a “new capitalism” plan; PM refutes early election report: Portal
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government will draft a “new capitalism” plan in June that will focus on wage increases, innovation and solving social problems, Portal reported.
Kishida added the government will make efforts to narrow the wage gap between domestic companies and their overseas competitors, the report said.
Separately, Portal also reported that the prime minister said he was not considering an early dissolution of parliament, refuting local media reports that his government was targeting snap elections in the coming months.
Japanese media cited Kishida’s successful passage of the full-year 2023 budget law as motivation to hold early elections to cement his standing in the party.
– Jihye Lee
6 hours ago
Australia’s vacancies fall in the February quarter
Australia’s quarterly job vacancies fell in the February quarter, Statistics Australia said on Thursday.
Total job vacancies fell 1.5% to 438,500 from November 2022, government data showed – private sector job vacancies fell 1.5%, while public sector job vacancies fell 1.4%.
The drop in vacancies was due to retail, ABS said, adding that vacancies were 92.4% higher than in the same quarter of 2020 before the Covid pandemic.
– Jihye Lee
6 hours ago
The Malaysian central bank expects the economy to grow between 4% and 5% in 2023
In its annual report, Bank Negara Malaysia expects economic growth of 4 to 5% for the year as a whole.
The central bank said the growth forecast was supported by “firm domestic demand”.
“Further improvement in labor market conditions, continued implementation of multi-year investment projects and higher tourism activity should support private consumption and investment growth,” the report said.
The central bank noted upside risks to its inflation forecast of between 2.8% and 3.8% for the year, including stronger-than-expected demand from China and further geopolitical tensions.
– Jihye Lee
6 hours ago
The Bank of Thailand hikes rates by 25 basis points
The Bank of Thailand raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 1.75% on Wednesday.
The central bank said Thailand’s economy is expected to expand further, driven by tourism and private consumption, while noting heightened uncertainty over the recent turmoil surrounding banks in the US and Europe.
“Global economic uncertainty has increased, in part due to persistent inflationary pressures and episodes of bank stress in advanced economies,” reads its policy statement.
It noted that Thailand’s banks were unaffected by the turmoil, adding that its system was “resilient”.
“Recent banking stress in some advanced economies has not had a major impact on Thailand’s financial system as Thai financial institutions and corporations have limited links with the troubled banks and risky assets,” the central bank said.
– Jihye Lee
7 hours ago
MAS calls DBS Bank default ‘unacceptable’
Singapore’s Monetary Authority on Wednesday called DBS Bank’s default “unacceptable” and said the bank had “performed below expectations”.
MAS said it directed DBS to investigate and determine the root cause of the disruption before forwarding its findings to the agency. It will then “take appropriate supervisory action after gathering the necessary facts,” MAS said in a statement.
Wednesday’s outage caused DBS’s digital services to be disrupted from around 10am to 5:45pm.
DBS CEO Piyush Gupta said on Wednesday the bank was “disappointed” by the incident, adding that “we hold ourselves to higher standards and reviewing today’s events is our top priority.”
– Lim Hui Jie
Wed Mar 29, 2023 3:22 am EDT
According to Fitch, Adani Transmission and Adani Ports are at risk of contagion
Adani Transmission and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone face “higher contagion risks,” Fitch Ratings said in its press release.
“The governance weaknesses at the sponsor level and other Adani Group entities expose even the group’s stable, capital-generating corporate-like issuers, Adani Transmission Limited and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited, to greater risks of contagion,” Fitch Ratings said.
It added that companies could hamper their financial flexibility if such risks are not adequately addressed.
Fitch reiterated the ratings of both companies at BBB- in the press release. Adani Transmission shares fell 0.5% in Mumbai on Wednesday, while Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone rose more than 5%.
– Jihye Lee
12 hours ago
All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 are trading higher
All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 traded higher, which helped fuel the index’s rally.
Information technology was the leader with a plus of 1.9%, followed by real estate with 1.7%. Healthcare was the laggard of the group but was still up 0.1%.
The broader index, meanwhile, gained 1.2%.
– Alex Harring
15 hours ago
Tech stocks soar, Nasdaq jumps more than 1%
Strength in tech stocks pushed the Nasdaq Composite up nearly 1.3% as of 11:45 am Wednesday, helping the tech-heavy index rebound from a losing session.
Semiconductor and big technology stocks were key contributors to these gains, with Amazon gaining nearly 3%. Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Salesforce, and Netflix were all up more than 1%.
A rise in Micron shares despite a disappointing quarter boosted the broader semiconductor sector. Micron was up about 6%, while Marvell Technology, Intel, and Lam Research were each up at least 4%. ON Semiconductor, Qualcomm and Analog Devices rose more than 2%, while Advanced Micro Devices rose 1.4%.
The information technology sector of the S&P 500 was up 1.6%, while communications services were up about 1%.
— Samantha Subin
16 hours ago
The Fed’s Barr said regulators have “significant powers” to oversee failed banks
Officials have enough rules to effectively oversee recently failed regional banks, the Federal Reserve’s top regulator said Wednesday.
“I think we had significant powers under current law to regulate and supervise companies in a way that was commensurate with their risk, size and complexity,” Michael Barr, the Fed’s deputy oversight chairman, told the House Financial Services Committee.
Some lawmakers, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have suggested that stricter regulations are needed for banks. Barr and other bank officials appeared to agree with that sentiment during Tuesday’s Senate testimony.
Barr said the mistakes that led to the demise of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were widespread.
“I think every time you have a bank failure like this, the bank management has clearly failed, the regulators have failed and our regulatory system has failed. So let’s look at all of that,” he said.
– Jeff Cox
17 hours ago
UBS shares rise as old CEO returns
UBS shares rose on Wednesday after the Swiss bank announced it would bring Sergio Ermotti back as CEO to oversee its takeover of Credit Suisse.
Ermotti, who previously served as the bank’s CEO from 2011 to 2020, will assume control on April 5.
In a note to clients, Bank of America analyst Alastair Ryan cited Ermotti’s “significant restructuring” of the bank during his earlier tenure as one reason investors would be happy with his return.
Swiss-traded UBS shares rose 4.4% following the announcement.
The stock is still down since the first week of March, when worries about the banking system began on both sides of the Atlantic.
— Jesse Pound