Asia week ahead: Thai GDP, China data, Philippines central bank, G-7 summit
Economic data releases and a Group of Seven summit in Japan will be the highlights of this week’s events in the Asia-Pacific.
On Monday, Thailand’s gross domestic product for the first quarter will be released in the morning. Economists at Goldman Sachs expect the economy to post a 1.8% quarter-on-quarter growth as consumption picks up and inventories rebound amid slower factory activity.
China releases a slew of economic data on Tuesday: Industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment growth as well as unemployment rate. Compared to a low base seen in April a year ago, market watchers are largely expecting the economic indicators to reflect a rebound in growth.
Economists polled by Reuters forecast industrial output to grow by 10.1% year-on-year in April after posting growth of 3.9% the month before. They also see retail sales surging 20.1% for the month after the economy saw a jump of 10.6% in March.
Australia’s central bank minutes as well as its first quarter wage price index will be released on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
New Zealand will unveil its annual budget for the year on Thursday, in which its finance minister has described as it focusing on returning to “a more sustainable fiscal position.”
Philippines’ central bank will meet and is widely expected keep its policy interest rate unchanged at 6.25% on Thursday, especially after the economy saw slight softening in its inflation print earlier this month.
If the central bank pauses its rate hike cycle, it would mark the first since March 2022.
— Jihye Lee
17 S&P 500 stocks reach fresh highs
Seventeen stocks in the S&P 500 reached fresh highs on Friday, with many trading at all-time highs. Food companies were among the notable names.
New S&P 500 52-week highs:
- O’Reilly Auto trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in April 1993
- PulteGroup trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in 1972
- General Mills trading at all-time highs back to when it began trading on the NYSE in 1928
- Pepsico trading at all-time highs back to Pepsi-Cola’s merger with Frito-Lay in 1965 to form Pepsico
- First Solar trading at levels not seen since September 2008
Meanwhile, there were 11 stocks reaching 52-week lows:
- Match Group trading at all-time lows back to its IPO in November 2015
- Organon trading at all-time lows back to its spin-off from Merck in June 2021
— Chris Hayes, Sarah Min
Consumer sentiment drops more than expected in May
Consumers grew more pessimistic in May as persistently high inflation and troubles in the banking industry weighed on sentiment.
The University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers showed a reading of 57.7 for the month, down from 63.5 in April and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 63.
Inflation expectations for a year from now edged lower to 4.5% but rose on the five-year outlook to 3.2%, tied for the highest since June 2008.
—Jeff Cox
Bitcoin heads toward its worst week of the year
Bitcoin is on pace to finish the week down 10.6%, which would make it its worst week since Nov. 11, in the days following the FTX collapse, according to Coin Metrics.
It was last trading down more than 1% at $26,416.31. Earlier, it hit a low of %26,138.19, its lowest level since March 17. The crypto asset has been sliding all week as investors weighed a host of negative developments, including:
- A false alarm suggesting the U.S. government’s movement of bitcoin for potential sale, which triggered a wave of long liquidations;
- Network congestion and higher fees, which led Binance to pause bitcoin withdrawals;
- Market makers Jump and Jane Street announcing a reduction in their U.S. crypto operations, pressured by the regulatory crackdown and adding to the existing liquidity problem in crypto,
- Uncertainties surrounding the U.S. debt ceiling and Federal Reserve policy.
Bitcoin has finished lower or less than 1% higher for the last six days. That itself could weigh on the mood, said Yuya Hasegawa, a crypto market analyst at Japanese bitcoin exchange Bitbank.
— Tanaya Macheel
Fed’s Michelle Bowman warns that more rate hikes could be needed
More interest rate increases may be needed if economic data doesn’t show more convincing signs that inflation is coming down, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said Friday.
“Should inflation remain high and the labor market remain tight, additional monetary policy tightening will likely be appropriate to attain a sufficiently restrictive stance of monetary policy to lower inflation over time,” Bowman said in prepared remarks for a speech delivered in Frankfurt, Germany.
Even though consumer and producer price indexes this week showed that the annual pace of inflation cooled slightly in April, the central bank official said those numbers, combined with last week’s nonfarm payrolls report, “have not provided consistent evidence that inflation is on a downward path.”
—Jeff Cox