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Asia markets mixed after Fed officials hint at higher rates

Lim Hui Jie

This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

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Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve's July minutes showed inflation concerns lingered, which could lead to more rate hikes.

"With inflation still well above the Committee's longer-run goal and the labor market remaining tight, most participants continued to see significant upside risks to inflation, which could require further tightening of monetary policy," the meeting summary stated.

The Federal Funds rate currently stands at 5.25% to 5.5%, the highest in 22 years.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was trading near the flatline, while on mainland China, the CSI 300 inched up 0.33% to 3,831.1.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.68% to end at 7,146, its lowest level in over a month, as the country's unemployment rate rose slightly to 3.7% in July.

Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.44% to end at 31,626, its lowest level since June and the Topix closed 0.34% lower at 2,253.06. The country saw its trade balance slip into a deficit in July from a surplus in June.

South Korea' Kospi was down 0.23% to end at 2,519.85 and record its fifth straight day of losses, but the Kosdaq bucked the wider trend and gained 0.88% to 886.04.


Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes notched a second straight losing session as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.52%, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.76%. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite saw the largest loss, falling 1.15%.

— CNBC's Hakyung Kim and Alex Harring contributed to this report

Philippines holds interest rates at 6.25% for third meeting in a row

The Philippines central bank has held its benchmark policy rate at 6.25% for the third meeting in a row, following its decisions at its May and June meetings.

Reuters reported that the central bank is forecasting that inflation can return to its 2-4% target range as early as the end of the third quarter, but that it does not see any easing in its policy stance, at least not in its next meeting.

The Philippines inflation rate currently stands at 4.7% in July, having fallen for six straight months.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australia's unemployment rises more than expected in July to 3.7%

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Australia climbed to 3.7% in July, up from the 3.5% seen in June and higher than the 3.6% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

The employment to population ratio decreased to 64.3%, and participation rate also fell to 66.7%.

The employment rate has been listed by the Reserve Bank of Australia as one of the key metrics that it will consider in its monetary policy decisions.

— Lim Hui Jie

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports fall at second fastest rate this year

Singapore's non oil domestic exports fell 20.2% year-on-year in July, the second fastest pace recorded this year after the 25% year-on-year fall seen in January.

This was also a steeper fall compared to a revised figure of a 15.6% drop in June, and more than the 14.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Total trade contracted by 20.8% in July, extending the 19.3% decline in the preceding month. Exports saw a 18.4% decrease, while imports fell 23.4%, more than June's 21.6% decline.

Singapore's seasonally adjusted trade reached SG$98.5 billion ($72.37 billion) in July 2023, higher than the previous month's SG$97.5 billion

— Lim Hui Jie

China’s premier says country will work to achieve growth targets

China's Premier Li Qiang said Wednesday the country would work to achieve its economic targets for the year, according to an official readout.

His remarks came a day after China reported disappointing data for July, prompting some economists to warn of rising downside risks to the country's gross domestic target of around 5% growth.

Speaking during a State Council meeting Wednesday, Li also said efforts should be made to "organically combine" security with development — in the context of promoting business overall. That's according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese readout.

— Evelyn Cheng

Japan trade balance falls into deficit in July

Japan's trade balance slipped into deficit territory in July, a month after after recording its first surplus in about two years in June.

The country's July trade deficit stood at 78.7 billion yen, reversing a 43 billion yen surplus in June and lower than the 24.2 billion surplus expected from a Reuters poll of economists.

However, July's deficit was 94.5% lower compared to the 1.42 trillion yen deficit recorded in July 2022.

Japan's exports fell 0.3% year on year, while imports saw a 13.5% drop compared to the same period last year.

— Lim Hui Jie

CNBC Pro: China's economy is teetering — and these European companies are among the most at risk

Several negative signals from China this week suggest that European companies with close ties to the world's second-largest economy may face difficulties in the coming months.

CNBC Pro's analysis of sales data found that companies in the mining, auto sector, luxury goods, and semiconductor and high-tech manufacturing are most exposed to China.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Fed minutes show officials see 'upside risks’ to inflation

The minutes from the Federal Reserve's July minutes pointed toward "upside risks" to inflation, which could lead to more rate hikes down the road.

"With inflation still well above the Committee's longer-run goal and the labor market remaining tight, most participants continued to see significant upside risks to inflation, which could require further tightening of monetary policy," the meeting summary stated.

— Fred Imbert, Jeff Cox

Utilities and consumer staples lead S&P 500, media companies drag broader index

Utilities and consumer staples led the S&P 500 on Wednesday afternoon, up 0.71% and 0.26%, respectively. Financials closely followed, up 0.25%.

Power generation company AES Corporation led the utilities sector in afternoon trading with a 2.8% gain. Consolidated Edison and Public Service Enterprise were also higher by about 1.5%. Target led consumer staples, trading 3.7% higher after its second-quarter earnings beat expectations. 

Communication services was the major laggard in the broad-based index, down 0.7%. The sector was dragged down by media titans Paramount, Netflix and Comcast. Facebook parent Meta and Match Group were also posting losses of at least 1%. 

— Pia Singh

CNBC Pro: Ark Invest says it's not A.I. hardware it's focused on, it's software — and names 2 stocks

Ark Invest's Renato Leggi says the firm wants to invest in software names related to artificial intelligence.

While investors have been very much focused on Nvidia, which makes advanced graphics processing units used for AI processes, Ark Invest wants to "focus on that piece that no one's really paying attention to," said Leggi, client portfolio manager at the firm.

He explains why and names two stocks the firm is "focused on."

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

There are 11 new S&P 500 stocks hitting fresh lows

There were 11 new S&P 500 stocks that hit fresh lows during midday trading Wednesday. Among them, stocks such as Moderna and SolarEdge Technologies fell to their lowest levels since 2020.

Meanwhile, there were just four S&P 500 stocks that reached fresh highs: Comcast, the TJX Companies, Arthur J. Gallagher and Eli Lilly.

Here are the other names hitting fresh 52-week lows:

— Sarah Min, Chris Hayes

CNBC Pro: Bank of America names top out-of-consensus global stocks to buy. Here are 12 of them

Bank of America named a number of buy-rated European stocks its analysts are most positive on.

The bank ranked stocks based on "beat factor" — its analysts' most out-of-consensus stock ideas based on price objectives and earnings estimates — in its Aug. 11 research note. All names are from the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Lucy Handley

Coinbase gets the green light to launch crypto futures trading

Shares of the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase rose 2.9% after the National Futures Association, a CFTC-designated self-regulatory organization, cleared the company to operate a futures trading service alongside its existing spot crypto trading offering.

The global crypto derivatives market represents ~75% of crypto trading volume worldwide, according to Coinbase.

The approval comes as the industry watches for the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve several applications for spot bitcoin ETFs. The regulator has only allowed bitcoin futures ETFs to operate so far. Coinbase has surveillance sharing agreements with several of the funds awaiting a response, meant to address SEC concerns about market manipulation.

— Tanaya Macheel