Asian stocks followed US shares lower, with the regional benchmark index falling to a one-month low, as energy and material shares slid amid a renewed selloff in commodities.
Noble Group Ltd tumbled 11 percent in Singapore after the commodity trader reported a slump in quarterly profit. BGF Retail Co declined 14 percent in Seoul after the convenience-store operator’s profit missed analyst estimates. Toshiba Corp sank 5.9 percent in Tokyo after reports questioning how the industrial group booked losses at its nuclear power operations. AAC Technologies Holdings Inc jumped 8.4 percent in Hong Kong to a seven-month high as Maybank Kim Eng Securities raised its rating on the supplier of speakers used in Apple Inc products.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1 percent on Friday to 132.28, taking its weekly loss to 1.1 percent, a third straight weekly decline. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 1.4 percent on Thursday, the most in six weeks, as a rout in commodities pressured oil and raw-materials companies while investors braced for the first rise in interest rates since 2006.
US Federal Reserve officials stressed that policy should be tightened only gradually, with New York Fed President William Dudley saying the conditions for liftoff “could soon be satisfied.”
The TAIEX lost 1.17 percent to close at 8,329.5.
Japan’s TOPIX slid 0.5 percent as the yen held gains against the dollar. South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 1 percent. New Zealand’s S&P NZX 50 Index slipped 0.6 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 1.5 percent to its lowest level since September. Singapore’s Straits Times decreased 1.1 percent, to its lowest close since Oct. 6.
Chinese stocks fell the most in six weeks in Hong Kong trading after the nation’s broadest measure of new credit slumped. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index and the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index slumped 2.2 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 1.4 percent.
The credit growth data rounds out a week of mixed readings that have showed falling exports, tame inflation, slowing industrial output and a rare bright spot in the form of increased retail spending. The readings underscore the government’s challenge to kickstart growth in an economy weighed by overcapacity and debt.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last