Fed decision, China PMI, Australia CPI

Singapore’s unemployment rate came in at 2% for the fourth quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter and at the same level compared with the same period in 2022.

The country’s manpower ministry said that total employment (excluding migrant domestic workers), expanded by 8,400 in the fourth quarter, growing for the ninth consecutive quarter. Retrenchments fell to 3,200 in the fourth quarter, down from 4,110 in the third quarter.

For the full year of 2023, the overall unemployment rate in Singapore fell from 2.1% to 1.9%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Samsung Electronics fell 1.21% after the company posted a 34.57% drop in operating profit in the fourth quarter from a year ago, in line with its guidance issued earlier this month.

Here are Samsung’s fourth-quarter results versus estimates:

• Revenue: 67.78 trillion Korean won (about $51 billion), vs. 69.27 trillion Korean won expected by LSEG analysts
• Operating profit: 2.82 trillion Korean won, vs. 3.43 trillion Korean won expected by LSEG analysts

In its earnings guidance earlier this month, Samsung said it expected operating profit for the October-December quarter to be 2.8 trillion South Korean won ($2.13 billion), down 35% from the same period a year ago when the firm reported an operating profit of 4.31 trillion won.

Read the full story here.

— Sheila Chiang

Australia’s consumer price index in the fourth quarter rose 4.1% year-on-year, slower than the 5.4% recorded in the third quarter and also lower than the 4.3% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

This also marks the fourth straight quarter where the inflation rate fell, and marks the lowest level since December 2021.

The trimmed inflation rate, which excludes the most volatile 30% of items, came in at 4.2%, falling from 5.2% in the third quarter.

— Lim Hui Jie 

South Korea’s industrial output cooled in December and retail sales fell, according to official data.

December manufacturing production index increased 0.6%, less than the prior month’s 3.3% increase. The reading was still higher than a Reuters poll forecast of a 0.5% increase.

On the consumption side, retail sales in December fell 0.8% from the prior month and was up 2.2% from a year ago. That follows a 1% increase in November.

South Korea’s Kospi opened 0.08% lower.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

As the U.S. presidential election comes into the spotlight, Goldman Sachs has assessed the potential impact on global markets by changes in regulation, taxation, and other government policies.

The Wall Street bank said in a note that if former President Donald Trump returns to power, risks would increase around potential tariffs on European exports and reduced U.S. support for Ukraine. However, it sees U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies potentially gaining if Trump delivers on a cut to corporation taxes.

The investment bank has also revealed the sectors and stocks most likely to be shielded from President Trump’s proposed 10% tariff on all U.S. imports.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Chipmaker Nvidia and Google parent Alphabet have been hot favorites among investors looking to invest in technology stocks in the past year.

Value investor Aaron Dunn of Morgan…