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Hong Kong shares drop 3.7% and mainland China stocks tumble to near 5-year lows

Lim Hui Jie
Shreyashi Sanyal

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

A Chinese flag flies outside a residential compound in Beijing.
Greg Baker | Afp | Getty Images

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 3.68% on Wednesday to close at 15,282.32 — its lowest level since November 2022.

The mainland Chinese CSI 300 fell to an almost five-year low after China's fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth missed estimates. The index, which measures the largest companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, fell 2.18% to close at 3,229.08.

The country's economy grew by 5.2% in the October to December period last year, China's National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday, missing expectations of a 5.3% growth forecast by economists polled by Reuters. GDP climbed 5.2% for the whole of 2023.

South Korea's Kospi was also down 2.47% to end at 2,435.9, its lowest since Nov. 14, while the small-cap Kosdaq dipped 2.25% to 833.05. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell for a fourth day, down 0.29% at 7,393.1.

Japan's Nikkei 225 extended losses for a second straight day after touching 33-year highs on Monday, with the index slipping 0.4% to 35,477.75 and the broad-based Topix fell 0.3% to end at 2,496.38.

China AMC Fund Management Co will reportedly temporarily suspend the Nikkei 225 ETF fund trading on Wednesday due to high premiums.

Japanese IT multinational Fujitsu was the second largest loser on the Nikkei after its Europe co-CEO apologized said the company had a "moral obligation" to compensate wrongly convicted sub-postmasters in the UK.


Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes fell as bond yields ticked higher and Wall Street pored through the latest batch of fourth-quarter earnings.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield climbed more than 11 basis points to 4.064% after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller indicated in a speech that the central bank could ease monetary policy slower than Wall Street had anticipated.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.62%, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.37% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.19%.

— CNBC's Sarah Min and Alex Harring contributed to this report

Hong Kong shares tumble over 2%, led by real estate stocks

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was the worst-performing index for a second straight day in Asia, falling 2.76% as real estate and consumer non-cyclical stocks declined.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba's subsidiary Alibaba Health Information Technology, which plunged 7.43%, was the biggest loser on the HSI.

It was followed by residential property manager Longfor Group and tech heavyweight Meituan, which shed 5.68% and 5.48%, respectively.

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— Lim Hui Jie

China reports fourth-quarter GDP miss as retail sales disappoint in December

China reported fourth-quarter GDP figures slightly below expectations, bringing 2023 growth to 5.2%.

The country's economy grew 5.2% in the October to December quarter, China's National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. That's below expectations of a 5.3% growth forecast by economists in a Reuters poll.

China's statistics bureau said the unemployment rate in cities in December was 5.1%, while that for people ages 16 to 24 remained far higher at 14.9%.

The bureau had in the summer temporarily suspended the release of the younger age group's unemployment rate, citing the need to reassess calculation methods. That unemployment rate had previously climbed to records above 20%.

Read the full story here.

— Evelyn Cheng

Business sentiment at large Japanese companies dip

Business sentiment at big Japanese manufacturers slid in January for the first time in four months, according to the monthly Reuters Tankan survey.

The sentiment index for manufacturers stood at +6, down from +12 six points in December, while the service-sector index grew to +29 in January from +26 in the previous month.

The monthly poll by Reuters tracks the Bank of Japan's key tankan quarterly survey, and is calculated by subtracting the percentage of pessimistic respondents from optimistic ones. A positive figure means optimists outnumber pessimists, and vice versa.

Reuters said the poll underscored concerns about weak external demand, especially from China.

— Lim Hui Jie

Singapore non-oil domestic exports unexpectedly fall in December

Customers at a cafe on a near empty street in Singapore, on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021.
Lauryn Ishak | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Singapore's December non-oil domestic exports unexpectedly fell on a year-on-year basis, Official data showed.

Singapore's NODX was down 1.5% last month, while a Reuters poll expected a rise of 3.3%. NODX in November had grown 1%.

The fall was a result of lower shipments of electronics. Shipments of non-electronic products rose.

Exports to Singapore's top markets — Taiwan, South Korea and Japan — fell broadly in the final month of 2023.

NODX to China, Hong Kong, the European Unions and the United States, however, rose.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

CNBC Pro: 'Buy on the dips': Morgan Stanley names its favorite stocks in European tech

Europe's technology hardware sector's "roller coaster year" of 2023 ended on a strong note, and a cyclical recovery is now underway, according to Morgan Stanley.

The Wall Street Bank is expecting investors to focus on a cyclical recovery and key themes such as artificial intelligence, advanced packaging, silicon carbide and gate-all-around transistors.

These themes can collectively "drive earnings momentum throughout this year, especially in 2H24," Morgan Stanley's analysts wrote, naming six stocks it is overweight on.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

CNBC Pro: 'A trove of rebound opportunities': Citi and others are bullish on biotech and more, naming stocks

2023 wasn't a good year for the health-care sector, but some investors expect it to make a comeback this year — highlighting biotech and medical tech as areas to watch.

The health-care industry "appears ready to return to leadership," given demographic shifts and the benefits of artificial intelligence, Citi said, adding that it expects "healthcare earnings recovery in 2024 to be one of the main drivers of potential outperformance in the sector."

CNBC Pro takes a look at stock picks and other investing tips for the sector that were offered by the bank — and strategists from elsewhere.

Subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Yields spike after Fed Governor Wallace says rate cuts may come slower than expected

The 10-year Treasury yield added nearly 9 basis points Tuesday after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller suggested the central bank may take its time lowering rates.

"As long as inflation doesn't rebound and stay elevated, I believe the [Federal Open Market Committee] will be able to lower the target range for the federal funds rate this year," Waller said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.

"When the time is right to begin lowering rates, I believe it can and should be lowered methodically and carefully," he added. "In many previous cycles ... the cut rates reactively and did so quickly and often by large amounts. This cycle, however, ... I see no reason to move as quickly or cut as rapidly as in the past."

— Hakyung Kim

Oil falls on stronger dollar, interest rate expectations

Oil prices fell Tuesday as the U.S dollar grew stronger after a Federal Reserve official indicated the central bank may not cut rates as aggressively as the market expects.

The West Texas Intermediate futures contract for February dropped 56 cents, or .77%, to trade at $72.12 a barrel. The Brent futures contract for March fell 13 cents, or .17%, to trade at $78.02 a barrel.

The U.S. dollar index rose nearly 1% after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said interest rates "should be lowered methodically and carefully" when the time is right.

Waller acknowledged the cuts are likely this year as long as inflation does not rebound and stay elevated.

Oil prices rose earlier in the trading session Tuesday as investors monitored mounting Middle East tensions, particularly in the Red Sea.

Oil major Shell has halted transit through the Red Sea amid fears about attacks by Houthi militants on commercial vessels in the waterway, The Wall Street Journal reported.

— Spencer Kimball

Microsoft, Nvidia among 16 S&P 500 names reaching fresh highs

"Magnificent 7 stocks" Microsoft and Nvidia were two of the 16 S&P 500 names to reach fresh highs on Tuesday. Shares of Microsoft were trading at levels not seen since March 1986, while shares of Nvidia were at levels not seen since January 1999.

Here are some of the other names that reached all-time highs:

  • Palo Alto Networks trading at all-time highs back to its IPO in July, 2012
  • Eli Lilly trading at all-time high levels back to 1952 when the company offered its first public shares of stock
  • CBOE Holdings trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in June, 2010‎
  • The TJX Companies trading at all-time highs back to IPO in 1987
  • Allstate trading at all-time highs levels back to its IPO in 1993, originally the insurance subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck

— Lisa Kailai Han, Christopher Hayes

Energy leads Tuesday's sector losses

The energy sector saw the largest decline within the S&P 500 on Tuesday, falling 2.1%, as oil prices fell on a strengthening U.S. Dollar. EQT, APA and EOG Resources all fell around 3.4%.

Financial stocks also dropped amid a series of big bank earnings reports. Morgan Stanley, which posted quarterly results in the morning, tumbled 5.2%. PayPal and T Rowe Price Group declined 4.6% and 3.9%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim