Stocks mixed, China house prices dip in January (2024)

Standard Chartered’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose 2.8% in afternoon trading after the company announced a $1 billion share buyback program.

StanChart also reported 2023 pre-tax profit of $5.09 billion, a year-on-year increase of about 18%.

The bank earns most of its revenue in Asia.

“We have increased dividends for the full year, up to 50%, and announced a new $1 billion share buyback, bringing our total distributions to shareholders to $5.5 billion from January 2022,” the company said. it’s a statement.

The bank also reported an $850 million impairment charge due to its stake in Chinese lender Bohai Bank.

—Shreyashi Sanyal

Falling sales prices for commercial housing in China narrowed month by month, according to data from the National Statistics Office.

Official data showed that sales prices of newly built commercial homes in first-tier cities fell 0.3% in January from the previous month, with declines narrowing by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.

Prices continued to decline from last year, falling 0.5% from the previous year or 0.4 percentage points more than the previous month.

The January data comes after the country’s troubled housing market late last year recorded its worst falls in new home prices in almost nine years.

China’s CSI 300 added 0.2%, and will rise for the ninth straight session if gains hold through the end of the trading day.

—Shreyashi Sanyal

The South Korean currency, the won.

Photography by Nora Carol | fake images

The Korean won fell against the US dollar on Friday, a day after the Bank of Korea held interest rates on hold.

The won fell 0.2%. The BOK left interest rates unchanged at 3.5% as expected on Thursday.

Goldman Sachs said Thursday that the central bank could be the first to cut rates.

Analysts at Commerzbank said that “divergent opinions within the board on the direction of rates could also increase volatility. Two board members are also expected to be replaced. This could change the dynamics on the board, depending on who is appointed.” “.

Stocks in Korea rose, with the Kospi adding 0.5% after Nvidia’s successful results helped boost global semiconductor stocks.

—Shreyashi Sanyal

Retail sales in New Zealand fell for the eighth consecutive quarter, according to official data on Friday.

Total retail sales volume in the December quarter fell 1.9%, data released by Stats NZ showed. Year after year retail sales contracted 4.1% in the December quarter.

“The continuing declines in retail activity over the past two years were marked by a decline in most industries in the December quarter,” said Melissa McKenzie, business finance statistics manager at Stats NZ.

The biggest declines in retail activity were driven by motor vehicle and parts retail (down 2.5%), food and beverage services (down 2.4%), and fuel retail (a drop of 3.6%).

The only industry that saw an increase in retail activity was pharmaceutical retail and other retail, which increased 0.3%.

—Shreyashi Sanyal

Several stocks that supply Nvidia appear to benefit from the AI ​​boom, as the American chip giant posted another excellent quarter of profits.

The acceleration of the AI ​​trend also means that your supplier network will directly or indirectly benefit from the growth.

CNBC looked for companies that are suppliers to Nvidia and appear to benefit from the AI ​​growth story.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

—Ganesh Rao

Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

This is how the main indices closed:

—Pia Singh

An overview of the Isfahan Refinery, one of the largest refineries in Iran and considered the country’s first refinery in terms of diversity of petroleum products in Isfahan, Iran, on November 8, 2023.

Fatemeh Bahrami | Anadolu | fake images

Crude oil futures rose on Thursday amid signs of a tight global market and as the geopolitical outlook in the Middle East remains uncertain.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for April gained 70 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $78.61 a barrel. The Brent contract for April added 64 cents, or 0.77%, to settle at $83.67 a barrel.

According to UBS strategist Giovanni Staunovo, the price premium for first-month futures contracts for subsequent months has increased in recent weeks.

A premium for immediate delivery versus late delivery is usually a sign that the oil market is tightening, Staunovo wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

The geopolitical landscape in the Middle East remains uncertain as the United States works toward a ceasefire in Gaza while tensions rise on the Israel-Lebanon border and in the Red Sea.

—Spencer Kimball

In this photo illustration, a visual representation of the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin is shown on February 13, 2024 in Paris, France.

Chesnot | fake images

Stocks linked to the price of bitcoin rose on Thursday, struggling to recoup losses from the previous session as bitcoin and cryptocurrency stocks fell in anticipation of the minutes from the latest Fed meeting.

Coinbase and Microstrategy rose 5% each in afternoon trading, while the largest mining stocks Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms advanced 8% and 4%, respectively.

Bitcoin rose more than 1%. Other cryptocurrencies saw even bigger gains, helped by a boost in the stock market following strong gains from Nvidia, as well as an optimistic tone in the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January meeting.

“The market was disappointed by the January decision…then had to significantly reassess its expectations for rate cuts and 2024; all of that was priced in ahead of the Fed minutes,” Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group. “The risk balance was tilted toward the reaction we’re seeing today, which is that there was going to be nothing worse that happened to the market yesterday.”

—Tanaya Macheel