Asia markets fall ahead of Bank of Japan rate decision

Lim Hui Jie

Asia-Pacific markets largely fell ahead of the Bank of Japan’s rate decision on Friday.

Japan’s central bank is expected to keep its benchmark policy rate unchanged at -0.1%, but investors will be keenly watching for any signs of a shift in stance towards its yield curve control policy.

The Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.29%, while the Topix saw a smaller loss of 0.9%.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.84% as the country’s retail sales fell 0.8% year on year in June, lower than expectations in a Reuters poll that the retail sales figure will remain unchanged from a year ago.

South Korea’s markets were more mixed, with the Kospi down 0.46% and the Kosdaq up 1.74%.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also fell 0.9%, while the Shanghai Composite was down 0.28% and the Shenzhen Component inched down 0.16%.

TICKER	COMPANY	NAME	PRICE	CHANGE	%CHANGE
.N225	Nikkei 225 Index	*NIKKEI	32445.7	-445.46	-1.35
.HSI	Hang Seng Index	*HSI	19515.58	-123.53	-0.63
.AXJO	S&P/ASX 200	*ASX 200	7389.2	-66.7	-0.89
.SSEC	Shanghai	*SHANGHAI	3214.74	-1.93	-0.06
.KS11	KOSPI Index	*KOSPI	2593.04	-10.77	-0.41
.FTFCNBCA	CNBC 100 ASIA IDX	*CNBC 100	8663.43	-72.4	-0.83

Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes slid, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 0.67% and snapping its 13-day winning streak.

Should the Dow have recorded a 14th straight day of gains, the index would have tied its record winning streak going way back to 1897.

Separately, the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.55%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.64%.

— CNBC’s Sarah Min and Samantha Subin contributed to this report

South Korea industrial production climbs in June

South Korea’s total industrial output climbed 0.1% on a month on month basis in June, a sharp decline from the 1.3% growth seen in May.

Output from mining and manufacturing industries went down compared to May, with the manufacturing industry seeing a 1.1% month on month decline.

However, output from the service industry and public administration sector went up from the previous month, recording gains of 0.5% and 3.1% respectively.

On a year-on-year basis, total industrial production rose 1.1%, compared to the 0.9% fall in May.

— Lim Hui Jie

Tokyo inflation rate ticks up to 3.2% in July

The consumer price index in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo rose 3.2% year on year in July, slightly higher than the 3.1% recorded in the previous month.

This is the 14th straight month that the inflation rate in the capital came in above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target.

Core inflation in Tokyo – which strips out prices of fresh food – came in at 3%, slightly higher than the 2.9% expected by economies polled by Reuters, but lower than June’s figure of 3.2%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Yen strengthens after reports of Bank of Japan allowing long term rates to go over 0.5%

The Japanese yen has strengthened 0.38% against the greenback to trade at 138.95 after a report that the Bank of Japan will discuss tweaking its yield curve control policy.

Nikkei has learnt that the BOJ will let long-term interest rates rise beyond its cap of 0.5% “by a certain degree.”

Under its yield curve control policy, the central bank targets short-term interest rates at -0.1% and the 10-year government bond yield at 0.5% above or below zero,

“The proposed change would keep the rate ceiling, but allow for moderate rises beyond that level,” Nikkei added.

— Lim Hui Jie

Goldman names China stocks set for a bounce — and 2 make its list of top buy-rated picks

Goldman Sachs has named a number of Chinese stocks to buy after authorities announced a number of major fiscal stimulus measures this week.

While structural growth concerns remain, the meeting “reaffirms our view that the policy put has been activated, and the window for a tactical bounce for Chinese stocks is now open,” Goldman analysts said in a July 26 research note.

— Lucy Handley

CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley names 3 ‘top’ stocks to buy and 3 to short in the office space sector

Morgan Stanley has named three stocks to buy and three to sell as it revealed its cautious stance on the global office spaces sector.

The Wall Street bank has forecast an oversupply of office space that could last more than a decade while facing headwinds from the rise in working from home, increasing capitalization rates, and expensive refinancing challenges.

— Ganesh Rao

CNBC Pro: These funds have the highest annualized returns in the last 5 years — and they are not tech

Much of the market gains this year has been dominated by tech stocks.

Investors are wondering if the U.S. Federal Reserve is done raising rates after its 25 basis-point hike on Wednesday. Still, uncertainty looms ahead for the tech sector.

For those looking outside of tech, Morningstar data shows that non-tech or growth funds have also been among the top performing for the last five years.

Here’s the list, and their top holdings.

— Weizhen Tan

Comcast, Alphabet among the 42 S&P 500 names reaching fresh highs

There are 42 names in the S&P 500 reaching fresh highs Thursday, many on the back of their recent quarterly reports.

Here are some of those names.

• Comcast trading at levels not seen since April 2022
• Alphabet C share trading at levels not seen since April 2022
• Alphabet A share trading at levels not seen since April 2022
• Meta Platforms trading at levels not seen since February 2022
• Caesars Entertainment trading at levels not seen since May 2022
• Lowe’s trading at levels not seen since March 2022
• PulteGroup trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in 1972
• Royal Caribbean trading at levels not seen since February 2020
• Bunge trading at levels not seen since June 2022
• Costco trading at levels not seen since April 2022
• Constellation Brands trading at all-time highs back through our history to 1986
• Arch Capital Group trading at all-time high levels back to when it began trading on the NASDAQ in 2000
• Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B trading at levels not seen since Apr, 2022
• MasterCard trading at all-time high levels since its IPO in May, 2006

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

— Sarah Min, Chris Hayes

Communication services outperforms, boosted by Meta, Comcast

Communication services was the leading sector in the S&P 500, up by more than 2.9% as of midday trading.

The sector was boosted by shares of Meta and Comcast, which were both higher following their most recent earnings beats.

The next highest sector was consumer discretionary, followed by information technology. Meanwhile, industrials and utilities were the two biggest laggards in the index.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

— Sarah Min

June pending home sales beat expectations

June pending home sales rose for the first time in three months. The data showed a rise of 0.3% last month, greater than the estimate of a 0.5% decline from analysts polled by Dow Jones. Pending home sales dropped 2.7% in the prior month.

— Sarah Min

GDP comes in better than expected for the second quarter

The U.S. economy grew by 2.4% in the second quarter, beating expectations. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected the economy grew by 2% in the second quarter. This is the latest piece of data pointing toward a resilient economy, not one going into a recession.

— Fred Imbert, Jeff Cox

Source : cnbc