© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A passerby walks past an electronic monitor showing recent movements in various stock prices outside a bank in Tokyo, Japan, March 22, 2023. Reuters/Issei Kato
Author : Wayne Cole
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asia Stocks got off to a cautious start on Monday in a week full of economic data and central bank meetings, with year-to-date results from tech giants also down. has been stable.
Surprisingly strong business activity surveys in early trade on Friday reinforced the case for a rate hike, slow to move.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.1 percent while inching up 0.2 percent.
and Nasdaq futures both fell 0.2 percent ahead of a busy week of earnings.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: ) and Microsoft Companies
(NASDAQ: ) accounted for nearly half of the S&P 500’s gains in March alone, so their outlook is heavily influenced.
“We believe analysts at stalwart Microsoft Wedbush Securities that Amazon, Amazon (NASDAQ: ) and Google (NASDAQ: ) should all offer compliant and possibly even Cloud results beat Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations, despite recent market noise.
“We also think a major narrative in tech earnings season will be the AI arms race, as Redmond battles with Google and Other tech giants vie for the AI trophy, each updating investors on their own AI ambitions/monetization strategy case. ”
The U.S. House of Representatives may vote this week on a Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts. Weak tax revenues mean the government could run out of money sooner than expected , default risk led to an increase in US credit default swaps.
US wages and growth reports this week could strengthen the case for further policy tightening. Influential Atlanta Fed Power’s GDP Now tracker showed the U.S. economy growing at an annualized 2.5% in the first quarter, only slightly slower than the previous quarter.
The Bank of Japan changed New Boss
The market is pricing in an 89% chance that the Fed will raise rates by 25bp at its first week of May meeting and fully expects the Fed to do so RATE HIGH
Canada and Sweden central banks meet this week, but the most focused will be the first meeting of the Bank of Japan chaired by new Governor Kazuo Ueda.
Only three of 27 economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ to start tapering its yield curve control (YCC) policy soon, but reports say the central bank is Consider a full review of the impact of its easing.
“Media background suggests don’t expect tweaks” Tapas Strickland, NAB’s head of market economics Said: Policy differences between Japan and other developed countries have led to a steady weakening of the yen over the past few weeks, especially as the euro hit a six-month high.
The single currency was steady at 147.33 yen on Monday, while the dollar held at 134.03.
The euro also edged up to $1.0992 and near its recent 1-year high of $1.1075.
A higher dollar and bond yields weighed on gold, which fell 1.2% last week and was last at $1,984 an ounce. [GOL/]
Oil prices also fell last week, although OPEC’s production cut plan provided some support. [O/R]
fell 9 cents to $81.57 a barrel on Monday, while shedding 12 cents to $77.75 a barrel.
