Asia Markets Live Updates: Japan GDP data shrinks

The Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing company said there was no damage to its facilities at the Arizona factory construction site. According to ReutersFollowing a report of an explosion at the plant.

A worker was taken to hospital with serious injuries following an explosion at TSMC's Arizona plant. The Arizona Republic previously reportedCiting authorities.

Firefighters from multiple departments responded to a hazardous materials call Wednesday afternoon, the Arizona Republic reported.

The chipmaker said in a statement that none of its employees or onsite construction workers reported any injuries, according to Reuters.

— Shreyashi Sanyal, Reuters

Chinese property stocks rose following a report that the country is considering buying millions of unsold homes from ailing developers in an effort to shore up its troubled property market.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Mainland property index rose more than 6%.

Shares in Hong Kong-listed Logan Group rose 11.59% and Longford Group rose 14.63%. China Vanke rose 14.78%. Private developer CIFI Holdings rose 25%.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg News China's State Council said it was working with state-owned enterprises and local state-owned enterprises from several provinces to buy unsold homes at deep discounts using loans from state-owned banks.

– Lee Ying Shan

Australia is seasonally adjusted The unemployment rate rose to 4.1% In April, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This was a 0.2 percentage point increase from the revised 3.9% reading in March.

« The employment-to-population ratio was steady at 64.0% in April, indicating that recent employment growth has broadly kept pace with population growth. This suggests that the labor market remains tight, albeit less tight in late 2022 and early 2023, » said Bjorn Jarvis, Australian Bureau of Statistics' Labor Director. said the Head of Statistics.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Published by Singapore Airlines A record operating profit 2.73 billion Singapore dollars ($2.03 billion) in its 2023 fiscal year ending March 31, surpassing the previous record of SG$2.69 billion set last year.

Net profit hit a new record of SG$2.67 billion, up 24% from a year ago. Full-year revenue rose 7% year-on-year to SG$19.01 billion.

The carrier, named by Skytrax as the world's best airline in 2023, said performance was driven by higher passenger revenue, despite falling cargo revenue.

In light of the results, SIA's board declared a dividend of 38 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the full financial year to 48 cents.

– Lim Hui Jee

Japan's economy contracted by 2% annually in the first quarter of 2024 Official data.

Compared to an expected 1.5% contraction in the first quarter, the GDP figure showed a deeper-than-expected contraction. Reuters poll.

The latest data could also affect the Bank of Japan's plans to raise interest rates.

The BOJ kept its benchmark policy rate unchanged at 0%-0.1% at its last monetary policy meeting on April 26, and said its monetary policy would depend on future economic conditions.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Citi recently named an under-the-radar company to buy a « data and AI opportunity. »

Citi noted that the company said its total addressable market has tripled thanks to its artificial intelligence offering.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Weissen Don

The best-performing « Magnificent Seven » stock halfway through the second quarter is Google and YouTube owner Alphabet, which is up about 14.15%. Apple is up 10.8% for the quarter, while Nvidia is up 4.8% and Amazon is up 2.4%. All four outperformed the S&P 500, which rose about 2.1%.

In contrast, Microsoft (+0.6%), Tesla (-0.7%) and MetaPlatforms (-1%) all underperformed the S&P 500 in the second quarter.

The best-performing sector this quarter was the S&P 500 Utilities, up 9.9%, and more than double the S&P 500 Communication Services, up 3.9%. The S&P 500 Information Technology (+2.8%) also outperformed the S&P 500.

Eight other S&P 500 sectors lagged the full benchmark this quarter, led by real estate, down 2.1%; Consumer discretionary, 2.0% discount; and health care, down 1.5%.

– Scott Schnipper

While the consumer price index showed inflation moderated somewhat in April, the « absence of nasty surprises » was welcome, unlike March's disappointingly high reading, said Mark Hamrick, senior economist at Bankrate.

He noted that interest rates will remain high for a long time to come.

« With a headline increase of 3.4% over the year and 3.6% in the core (excluding food and energy), these are annoyingly high, » Hamrick said. « As a condition of the war on inflation, interest rates should be raised in the near term. »

– Michael Fox

Many clean energy stocks have rallied this week, in some cases without company-specific news, leaving some investors questioning what's behind the gains.

Pavel Molchanov, an equity analyst at Raymond James, said Tuesday's rally was not a reaction to US tariffs on China. Some of the bounced stocks have nothing to do with tariff policy, Molchanov said.

Yesterday's bounce was « simply a meme stock rally, with heavily shorted stocks taking huge profits, » the analyst told clients in a research note on Wednesday.

Home solar company SunPower saw some strong gains in the clean tech space, rallying 34% since the start of the week.

« Yesterday pure tech investors got a reminder — if any was needed — of how emotionally these stocks can move on a daily basis, » Molchanov said.

– Spencer Kimball