Asian markets rose as Wall Street rose on hopes of a debt ceiling deal

Shares of Hong Kong-based Chinese tech giant Tencent fell more than 3% even as the company reported an 11% jump in quarterly revenue to CNY150 billion ($21.4 billion).

This marks its fastest growth in over a year, as the company has seen a significant recovery in payments volumes and ad and game sales.

Net profit jumped 10% to 25.8 billion yuan, less than the 31 billion yuan forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

– Lim Hwi Ji, Ryan Brown

Japanese markets extended their winning streak on Thursday, with the Nikkei 225 extending gains into the region and continuing to trade above the 30,000 mark.

Topix has maintained levels not seen since August 1990.

Energy and technology stocks led the Topix index, with Sony and electronics firm Tokyo Electron being the biggest gainers.

Meanwhile, Facttest revealed that electronics stocks led the Nikkei index, as the biggest gainer in the index was Advantest, a semiconductor testing equipment manufacturer, followed by Tokyo Electron.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Nomura cut its full-year growth forecast for China from 5.9% to 5.5%, according to a note on Wednesday.

“China’s post-Covid recovery is rapidly losing steam,” Nomura’s Ting Lu wrote, noting that the latest activity and high-frequency data in May show the momentum has lost steam “due in part to weak confidence among consumers and business investors.”

“As disappointment sets in, we see rising risks of slower activity growth, higher unemployment, continued low inflation, lower market interest rates, and currency weakness,” he wrote.

Nomura added that it will also lower its 2024 full-year GDP forecast for China from 4.4% to 4.2%. It now expects Q2 GDP to grow by 7.8%, Q3 by 4.9%, and Q4 by 5.0%.

– Jihe Lee

Japan’s trade deficit almost halved in April, dropping to 432.41 billion from 854.93 billion a year earlier.

In particular, imports fell 2.3% year-on-year, more than the 0.3% drop expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Exports were largely in line with expectations, rising 2.6% year-on-year compared to the 3% expected.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Government data showed that New Zealand’s producer price index increased by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the last quarter of 2022.

The Input Price Index rose 0.2% – with the Farm Expenditure Index up 0.7% and the Capital Goods Price Index up 1%.

The New Zealand dollar rose slightly to 0.6242 against the US dollar.

– Jihe Lee

Nvidia, the company behind the most powerful chips used to enable artificial intelligence (AI), has the potential to increase its stock value fivefold within the next 10 years, according to investor and fund manager Philip Reibmann.

Investors’ enthusiasm for Nvidia centers around its business model of selling the high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) necessary to run the complex algorithms behind artificial intelligence technologies. As AI becomes increasingly important across industries, so has the demand for GPUs.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more of Ripman’s take on Nvidia here.

– Ganesh Rao

The year is nearing the halfway point, and global equities have fared much better than they did in a choppy 2022.

Many stocks have jumped and beat the overall market, but there is still more room for investor bullishness.

CNBC Pro examined stocks that are outperforming the market around the middle of the year — and that’s what analysts love. One is a Buffett favorite, and two other top picks are by BofA and Citi.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Wizen tan

Montana has become the first US state to completely ban the video app TikTok.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said in a statement, “The Chinese Communist Party’s use of TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well documented.”

“Today, Montana is taking the most decisive action of any state to protect Montana residents’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote.

The statement added that the governor also directed the state’s chief information officer and directors of executive agencies to “prohibit the use of all social media applications associated with foreign opponents on state equipment and state business.”

TikTok called the move “a bill that violates the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana,” adding that the ban is “illegal.”

“We want to reassure Montana residents that they can continue to use TikTok to express themselves, make a living, and find community as we continue to work to defend the rights of our users inside and outside Montana,” TikTok said in a statement.

– Jihe Lee

The Fed’s rate hike cycle may have paused – and Bank of America thinks some smaller names could outperform.

The central bank hinted in its statement after the meeting in May that it may not raise interest rates beyond the current range of 5% to 5.25%. Bank of America said its economists expect a slowdown in inflation and a mild recession in the coming months after a pause in tightening monetary policy.

If this is the case and the Fed ends its rate hike campaign, investors may want to consider investing in some of the smaller stocks that have historically performed well.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read which stocks Bank of America thinks will outperform here.

– Hakyung Kim

Technology stocks rose during Wednesday’s rally. The SPDR Technology Sector Fund (XLK) rose 1.2%, hitting a 52-week high. It is the third consecutive session that the Fund has reached this milestone.

Tech ETD is up 2% this month, pushing its gains for 2023 to nearly 24%.

Investors steered away from defensive stocks on Wednesday. Among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, only health care, consumer staples and utilities traded in negative territory during midday trading.

Healthcare stocks fell 0.9%, while utility stocks slipped 0.5%. Core consumer goods fell 0.4%.

– Sarah Maine

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed optimism on Wednesday that although debt ceiling negotiations hit snags, he did not expect a default.

“I think at the end of the day we don’t have a default,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” I think we finally got the president to agree to negotiate.”

The comments come a day after President Joe Biden met with top congressional leaders to try to find a way around the debt impasse. McCarthy said the talks resulted in a “structure” for finding a solution while noting that the deadline remains “tight” as Republicans seek spending cuts and Democrats seek a clean bill with no strings attached.

“There comes a moment when you hit a wall,” McCarthy said. “You cannot continue on this path if you want to continue to be the most powerful country in the world.”

– Jeff Cox