Asia markets rise as China’s factory activity contracts for fourth straight

The Bank of Japan raised its inflation forecasts for 2023 in its latest quarterly outlook report, expecting that its core inflation rate for its fiscal year 2023 will come in at 2.4% to 2.7%.

Japan’s financial year runs from March to March the next year.

This is higher than the 1.7% to 2% forecast in the April quarterly outlook report. The core inflation rate strips out the price for fresh food in the consumer price index.

The so called “core-core” inflation rate, which strips out prices of fresh food and energy and that the BOJ uses as a reference, is now expected to come in at 3.1% to 3.3%, compared to 2.5% to 2.7% in its April forecast.

The central bank explained that the projected core inflation in 2023 is “significantly higher”, mainly as cost increases led by the past rise in import prices have been passed on to consumer prices to a greater extent than expected

— Lim Hui Jie

China’s factory activity remained in contraction territory for the fourth straight month, with the purchasing manager’s index coming in at 49.3 compared to the 49.2 expected by economists polled by Reuters.

According to the country’s national bureau of statistics, the PMI level is also higher than the 49.0 recorded in June.

The PMI for the non-manufacturing sector in July came in at 51.3, compared to June’s figure of 53.2.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japan’s industrial output climbed 2% in June compared to the month before, lower than the 2.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

The preliminary report also showed that on a year on year basis, industrial output fell 0.4%, a sharp reversal from the 3.1% rise seen in May.

Japan’s ministry of economy, trade, and industry said that the production of motor vehicles, electronic parts and devices, as well as machinery mainly contributed to the increase in June.

— Lim Hui Jie

Just as Chinese electric car companies may need cash, foreign automakers need the market — not only in China but globally.

Xpeng’s cash and cash equivalents nearly halved in the first quarter from the end of 2022, and its deliveries have stagnated at several thousand a month.

Volkswagen isn’t faring much better in China’s electric car market, with an average of just over 10,000 vehicles delivered each month in the first half of the year. But the German automaker has far more cash.

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— Evelyn Cheng

The market rally has been strong this year, but there are still some relatively cheap stocks.

CNBC Pro screened for stocks that are cheaper than those in the broader S&P 500 and MSCI World indexes, with at least 20% upside.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Stocks are flying high this year. The Nasdaq is up 35% with S&P 500 trailing not far behind despite a relentless rise in interest rates by the Fed.

However, according to Andrew Slimmon, a lead senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, those are all reasons to be a “little cautious” coming out of the busiest week for earnings.

Slimmon also shared some of the tech picks to buy after earnings season.

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— Ganesh Rao

Technology stocks climbed on Friday, boosting the Nasdaq Composite by more than 2% midday Friday.

Major gainers included technology giants and semiconductor stocks. Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix rose about 3% each, while Meta Platforms jumped more than 4%, bringing its weekly gains to nearly 11%. Nvidia added 2%, while Applied Materials…