Category Archive

Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• Australia’s CPI rose 3.5% year on year, slightly above the 3.4% rise expected by economists polled by Reuters and compared to 3.8% in June.
• Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s last meeting revealed that the central bank had considered raising interest rates in its bid to tame inflation.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• China reported that its industrial profits from January to July climbed 3.6% year on year.
• Oil prices continued to rise after Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes over the weekend, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude climbing 3.5% to close at $77.42 per barrel and Brent crude up 3.05% at $81.43 a barrel, its highest in about two weeks.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• Investors in Asia assessed dovish comments by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and rising Middle East tensions as Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes.
• China’s central bank will release its medium-term lending rate on Monday, while Singapore will publish its manufacturing data for July.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• Japan’s headline inflation came in at 2.8%, unchanged from the month before.
• However, the so called “core-core” inflation rate, which strips out prices of both fresh food and energy and is tracked by the Bank of Japan, fell to 1.9% in July, down from 2.2%.
• This is the lowest the “core-core” inflation rate has reached since September 2022.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• The Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate at 3.5%, in line with expectations.
• Investors digested business activity data from Australia and Japan and awaited PMI numbers from India.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• Japan’s July exports rose 10.3% year on year and imports rose 16.6% in the same period, compared to expectations of a 11.4% rise for exports and a 14.9% growth for imports.
• It was the last month of trade data recorded before the Bank of Japan’s move to raise interest rates at the end of July, which caused the yen to strengthen dramatically.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• China’s central bank left its one-year and five-year loan prime rates unchanged at 3.35% and 3.85% respectively, in line with expectations.
• Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s August meeting revealed that the central bank considers a rate cut in the short term as “unlikely.”

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• Traders in Asia will watch out for central bank releases this week, including the Bank of Korea’s rate decision and minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s August meeting.
• Core machinery orders in Japan fell 1.7% year on year in June, surprising economists who had expected a 1.8% rise.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• Asian markets track the rally on Wall Street after U.S. economic data eased fears of a recession.
• Traders in Asia also assess non-oil exports data from Singapore, which massively beat Reuters’ poll expectations
• Taiwan and Hong Kong’s second-quarter GDP data will be out after market hours.

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Lim Hui Jie

Key Points

• Japan’s second-quarter gross domestic product beat market expectations on a quarter-on-quarter basis, climbing 0.8% compared to forecasts of a 0.5% rise from economists polled by Reuters.
• U.S. consumer prices increased 2.9% year over year, down from 3% in June and the lowest reading since March 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday. Month-over-month, prices ticked up 0.2%.

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