An hour ago
South Korea’s office market is one of the strongest in the world, a real estate firm says
South Korea’s office market is booming as the country bucks remote working trends.
Seoul recorded a low prime office vacancy rate of 3.4% in the third quarter, according to a report by Savills, a real estate services firm. Transactions totaled 2.6 trillion South Korean won ($2 billion) during the period, with year-to-date volume reaching 7.3 trillion South Korean won, the report said.
“The Korean office market has been one of the strongest in the world…we are seeing, as you know, strong rental growth, strong underlying fundamentals, relatively good supply-demand plays and low vacancy rates,” Ray Lawler, Asia Pacific Hines CEO, a real estate company, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”
Lawler added that South Korea’s office market is a “real outlier” and is “swimming against the tide globally.”
Hines currently has around $1.7 billion invested in real estate in Seoul and Busan. Going forward, the company expects to expand its investments in South Korea.
— Quek Jie Ann
2 hours ago
Singapore’s largest bank DBS beats forecast, quarterly profit rises 17%
Southeast Asia’s largest lender DBS Group reported a 17% jump in third-quarter profit on Monday, benefiting from a high interest rate environment.
Shares of the lender rose 0.45% in early afternoon trading.
Net profit rose to 2.63 billion Singapore dollars (US$1.94 billion) in the quarter. 2.24 billion Singapore dollars a year ago.
It was higher than analyst estimates at LSEG, which forecast a quarterly profit of 2.5 billion Singapore dollars for the July-September quarter.
The Bank of Singapore In addition, a dividend of 48 Singapore cents for each ordinary share was declared for the third quarter.
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—Shreyashi Sanyal
4 hours ago
South Korean stocks rise after temporary short-selling ban
South Korean stocks jumped after financial authorities said they would reimpose a ban on short selling until the end of June 2024. Short selling is when a trader sells borrowed shares to buy them back at a lower price and pocket the difference.
The ban restricts short selling of all stocks listed on Kospi, Kosdaq and Konex. In May 2021, restrictions on trading stocks of large-cap companies, most of which are included in the Kospi, were lifted.
“We seek to fundamentally eliminate the ‘distorted playing field’ between organizations and individuals,” Financial Services Commission Chairman Kim Joo-hyun said in a press release.
The Kospi rose 3.93% while the Kosdaq gained 5.88%.
This came after a report in mid-October said that South Korea’s securities regulator had found that two Hong Kong-based investment banks had engaged in naked short selling, which was expected to result in record fines. Naked short selling is when an investor sells a stock or other security short without first taking out a loan.
—Shreyashi Sanyal
6 hours ago
Japan’s business activity in October is growing at its slowest pace this year
Japan’s business expanded in October, but at its weakest pace this year, according to a private survey.
au Jibun Bank’s final composite purchasing managers’ index stood at 50.5 in October, signaling a tenth consecutive monthly increase in private sector business activity, but below September’s reading of 52.1.
The Jibun Bank Japan Services Business Activity headline index rose for the fourteenth consecutive month in October, coming in at 51.6, but below September’s reading of 53.8.
Both metrics pointed to the weakest expansion yet in 2023.
The survey said there were further signs of slowing expansion given weakening demand conditions, while business confidence also weakened in October.
—Shreyashi Sanyal
7 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Growth investor underweight the Magnificent Seven but likes a tech giant
The “Magnificent Seven” stocks – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla – have proven popular this year, but one growth investor says he is underweight the group.
“The Magnificent has done well and is poised to continue to do well because they did.” [a] They have fortress-like balance sheets and are highly profitable. “They’ve used the last two years post-Covid to become more efficient, but they also have tremendous opportunities ahead of them in terms of artificial intelligence,” Jonathan Curtis told CNBC on Friday.
However, he said investors need to be “a little more curious and cautious” about tech mega-caps – citing his favorite as having “tremendous growth potential.”
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
—Amala Balakrishner
7 hours ago
CNBC Pro: Citi is bullish on part of the semiconductor industry. Here are the top stock picks
A recovery began in one corner of the semiconductor industry in the second half of this year, according to Citi.
The rise in monthly semiconductor sales in September beat Citi’s estimates. It rose 13% from the previous month to $49.6 billion, above the bank’s estimates of $46.9 billion, the bank said.
CNBC takes a look at five of its top stock picks.
Subscribers can read more here.
– Weizhen Tan
Fri, November 3, 2023, 8:36 a.m. EDT
US jobs grew slower than expected in October
The Labor Department said Friday that the U.S. economy added 150,000 jobs in October. This is slightly below the Dow Jones forecast of 170,000.
Average hourly wages, a closely watched data point in the inflation trends report, rose 0.2% last month. This is also a smaller increase than expected. Unemployment, meanwhile, rose to 3.9% versus a forecast of 3.8%.
—Fred Imbert
Fri, November 3, 2023, 11:17 am EDT
Goldman Sachs’ chief economist says labor market data reinforces the prospect that the Fed is done raising interest rates
Friday’s jobs report, which fell short of expectations, bolsters the argument that the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates, said Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius.
“I thought it was generally weaker than expected,” Hatzius said of the report on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” But: “I don’t think it was weak in a particularly worrying way.”
Hatzius said the paper supports the argument of those who expect the central bank to be done raising interest rates in the current monetary policy cycle after its meeting earlier this week. While he said Goldman doesn’t expect the Fed to cut rates until the fourth quarter of next year, he said the central bank could start cutting rates if the economy slows more sharply before then.
“It was a softer report that I think reinforces the message that the market took away from this week’s FOMC meeting – which is that the Fed is most likely done raising rates,” he said, using the acronym for the Federal Open Market Committee.
—Alex Harring
Fri, November 3, 2023, 1:47 p.m. EDT
Long-term Treasury ETF extends November rally
The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) is on track for its third consecutive positive day as Treasury yields fall.
The TLT rose 1.2% in afternoon trading, meaning the fund was already up more than 5% in November, which began with Wednesday’s Fed meeting.
TLT saw strong inflows and trading activity in October as some investors appeared to be betting on a recovery in the fund after yields rose above 5%.
–Jesse Pound