Asia markets mixed ahead of Fed meeting and as U.S. inflation rate hits two-year low

Xiaolin Chen, head of international at KraneShares, discusses how Chinese policymakers should address the country's economic challenges.

Singapore's gross domestic product forecasts for full-year 2023 have been cut to 1.4%, according to the survey of professional forecasters released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

This was lower than the 1.9% forecasted in the previous survey sent out in February. In 2024, GDP is projected to expand by 2.5%, the latest survey showed.

The median forecasts for Singapore's headline and core inflation are forecasted to come in at 5% and 4.1% respectively for the whole of 2023, unchanged from the the March survey.

In addition, none of the respondents expect changes to the slope, width and level of Singapore's currency policy band in its October review. Singapore uses exchange rate settings rather than the interest rate as its instrument of monetary policy.

— Lim Hui Jie

Toyota shares hit a 16-month high Wednesday after shareholders voted to retain Akio Toyoda as its chairman in a broad endorsement of the company's board and renewed strategy.

Shareholders also rejected proposals to seek greater disclosures on the Japanese automaker's climate lobbying, while also voting in favor of all 10 proposed members of the board at the company's annual general meeting in Toyota City.

Ahead of the meeting, the world's largest car manufacturer unveiled Tuesday a full lineup of battery electric vehicles with "next generation" batteries it hopes to roll out from 2026. These will be developed and manufactured by a new EV unit called BEV Factory, which was established in May.

Toyota shares were up roughly 4.3% at 1.p.m local time to 2,276 Japanese yen per share — their highest level since February, 2022. They were also outperforming both the Topix and Nikkei benchmarks in Tokyo, which were both up around 1% Wednesday afternoon.

— Clement Tan

Economists on Wall Street are warning weakness in China's property market could be a drag on the economy for years to come.

"We see persistent weaknesses in the property sector, mainly related to lower-tier cities and private developer financing, and believe there appears no quick fix for them," Goldman Sachs economists led by China economist Lisheng Wang said in a weekend note.

Goldman's economists said the property market is expected to see an "L-shaped recovery" — defined as steep declines followed by a slow recovery rate.

Morgan Stanley in an outlook report added should monetary easing measures fail to support the ailing sector, it will also lead to concerns of a spillover effect in the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

A "downside risk would be if China's property sector does not stabilize even with the easing we expect," they said. "In that scenario, confidence and financial conditions will tighten in China, which will have direct implications for China's growth but also will negatively spill over to the region."

– Jihye Lee

Hung Nguyen Quan, senior economist at Dragon Capital, discusses Vietnam's energy mix and the challenges the sector faces.

South Korea's export prices in May fell 11.2% year-on-year, the most since March 2010, when export prices fell by 12.2%. This comes after prices fell 7.2% in April.

Import prices also fell 12% year-on-year, following a 6% decline the previous month.

The South Korean won weakened by 0.42% to 1,273.02 against the U.S. dollar, while the Kospi rose 1.5%

– Jihye Lee

Dong Chen of Pictet Wealth Management cites signs such as first-quarter gross domestic product numbers and improving domestic consumption.

South Korea's unemployment rate reached a record low of 2.5% in May, a level last seen in August 2022.

Government data showed that the number of employed persons totaled 28.84 million in May, increasing by 1.2% year-on-year.

The employment to population ratio stood at 63.5% in May, up 0.5% percentage points year-on-year.

Separately, the number of unemployed persons was at 787,000 thousand people in May, down 11.5% year-on-year.

— Lim Hui Jie

The consumer price index rose 4% year over year last month, matching a Dow Jones forecast and marking its lowest level in two years. The CPI's month-over-month change and so-called core measure — which strips out volatile food and energy prices — were also in line with expectations.

— Jeff Cox

One U.S.-listed stock has risen by more than 10% every year for the past 10 years.

It is the only major stock among 85,000 to have posted such consistent returns, CNBC Pro has found.

Investment bank analysts also expect the stock to rise by 19% over the next 12 months.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

There's one corner of the semiconductor sector that analysts are particularly bullish on to play the artificial intelligence theme.

Bank of America expects the segment to reach $12 billion by 2027.

Here's how to play it, according to the analysts.

— Weizhen Tan

Stocks closed higher on Tuesday after traders spent the session adding to optimism that the latest inflation data could support the central bank skipping a rate hike for June.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 146 points , or 0.4%, to close at 34,212.12. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% to close at 4,369.01, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.8% to 13,573.32.

The consumer price index showed inflation increased 0.1% in May, down from 0.4% a month earlier, and gained 4% year over year. The Fed will decide its next move on policy Wednesday.

— Brian Evans

WTI (JUL) gained 3.7% to reach $69.74 Tuesday, on track for its best day since May 5, when it gained 4.05%. This is also the commodity's first positive day in the last four trading sessions.

The VanEck Oil Services ETF (OIH) is also up 4%, on pace for its best day since Jun 2, when OIH gained 5.12%. OIH leaders today include NexTier, Patterson-UTI, Nabors, Transocean, which are all up more than 5% during Tuesday's trading session.

— Hakyung Kim, Gina Francolla

The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) is up about 4% in Tuesday's session.

That puts it on pace for its best performance since June 1, when the fund finished 4.97% higher.

Baidu has led the index up with a gain of more than 7%. iQIYI and Lufax followed, with each advancing more than 6%.

All U.S. stocks in the index were up in Tuesday's session.

Despite the rally, the ETF is still down more than 4% this year.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla