SHANGHAI/TOKYO (Dow Jones)–The East Asian and Australian stock markets presented themselves inconsistently within mostly narrow limits in the course of trading on Wednesday. Eyes are on US consumer prices to be released in the early afternoon European time.
Because a further decline in inflation is expected, the dollar is lighter in the run-up. If inflation does turn out to be low, it could fuel speculation that the US Federal Reserve will follow the expected rate hike At the end of July, keep your feet still at least for the time being. Some support comes from Wall Street, which ended the day with solid premiums. In New Zealand, the central bank left interest rates unchanged, as expected, but warned that policy would need to remain tight for some time.
While the Hong Kong stock exchange recorded a significant increase of 1.2 percent, Shanghai is slightly in the red. Hopes for a recovery in the second half of the year are circulating on the Chinese stock exchanges, fueled by stimulating measures by Beijing. Hong Kong is buoyed by data showing China’s credit growth has accelerated. Above all, oil and technology stocks are among the favourites.
In Japan, the Nikkei slipped 0.6 percent to 31,999 points, weighed down by continued yen strength. In addition to the general weakness of the dollar, the Japanese currency is also being driven by expectations that the Bank of Japan will make its monetary policy could change.
In Korea (unchanged) there is talk of isolated profit-taking. Participants report sluggish, low-volume trading ahead of US consumer prices. The share of electric car-Battery maker LG Energy Solution slips 2.9 percent as parent LG Chem plans to issue $2 billion in convertible bonds.
Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said his agency is keeping the door open for further rate hikes. Whether these are necessary depends on the development of the economy and inflation. The index in Sydney is still 0.3 percent up.
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Index (stock market) last +/- % % YTD end
S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney) 7,133.50 +0.3% +1.4% 08:00
Nikkei-225 (Tokyo) 31,998.75 -0.6% +23.4% 08:00
Kospi (Seoul) 2,563.73 +0.0% +14.6% 08:00
Shanghai Comp. 3,217.28 -0.1% +4.1% 09:00
Hang Seng (Hongk.) 18,875.17 +1.2% -6.6% 10:00
Straits Times (Sing.) 3,178.58 +0.5% -3.1% 11:00
KLCI (Malaysia) 1,396.94 +0.4% -7.5% 11:00
FOREX last +/- % 00:00 Tue, 9:29 % YTD
EUR/USD 1.1033 +0.2% 1.1007 1.1013 +3.1%
EUR/JPY 154.04 -0.3% 154.50 154.97 +9.8%
EUR/GBP 0.8511 -0.0% 0.8512 0.8546 -3.8%
GBP/USD 1.2964 +0.3% 1.2931 1.2887 +7.2%
USD/JPY 139.59 -0.6% 140.37 140.71 +6.5%
USD/KRW 1,289.44 -0.1% 1,290.88 1,293.03 +2.2%
USD/CNY 7.2102 -0.3% 7.2102 7.2059 +4.5%
USD/CNH 7.1913 -0.3% 7.2122 7.2065 +3.8%
USD/HKD 7.8288 +0.0% 7.8270 7.8267 +0.3%
AUD/USD 0.6725 +0.6% 0.6686 0.6680 -1.3%
NZD/USD 0.6230 +0.6% 0.6196 0.6197 -1.9%
Bitcoin
BTC/USD 30,609.17 +0.1% 30,577.09 30,586.48 +84.4%
ROHOEL last VT-Settlem. +/- % +/- USD % YTD
WTI/Nymex 74.90 74.83 +0.1% +0.07 -5.6%
Brent/ICE 79.46 79.4 +0.1% +0.06 -4.5%
METALS last day before +/- % +/- USD % YTD
Gold (Spot) 1,937.96 1,931.67 +0.3% +6.30 +6.3%
Silver (Spot) 23.23 23.15 +0.4% +0.08 -3.1%
Platinum (Spot) 932.90 929.00 +0.4% +3.90 -12.7%
Copper Future 3.79 3.76 +0.7% +0.03 -0.8%
YTD based on the closing price of the previous day
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 12, 2023 00:49 ET (04:49 GMT)