{"id":71265,"date":"2024-07-31T16:48:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T06:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/?p=71265"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:37:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:37:59","slug":"wednesday-31st-july-2024-asia-pacific-markets-gain-amid-mixed-economic-data-and-u-s-tech-declines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wednesday-31st-july-2024-asia-pacific-markets-gain-amid-mixed-economic-data-and-u-s-tech-declines\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday 31st July 2024: Asia-Pacific Markets Gain Amid Mixed Economic Data and U.S. Tech Declines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 1.59%, Shanghai Composite up 2.08%, Hang Seng up 2.09% ASX up 1.76%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $2465.35 (0.57%), Silver at $28.78 (0.65%), Brent Oil at $79.53 (1.87%), WTI Oil at $76.29 (2.28%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.152, UK 10-year yield at 4.043, Germany 10-year yield at 2.330<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>(USD) CB Consumer Confidence&nbsp; 100.3 vs 99.7 expected<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(USD) JOLTS Job Openings&nbsp; 8.18M vs 8.02M expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Asia-Pacific markets rose on Wednesday as investors assessed China&#8217;s business activity data. Japan&#8217;s Nikkei 225 reversed losses to log gains after the central bank raised benchmark interest rates to around 0.25%, the first increase above 0.1% since December 2008. Economists had expected the bank to hold rates at 0%-0.1%, though some anticipated a hike. China&#8217;s factory activity contracted slightly faster in July, with the manufacturing PMI at 49.4, down from 49.5 in June but above the 49.3 forecasted by a Reuters poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Australia&#8217;s second-quarter inflation rose by 1% compared to the previous quarter, with a 3.8% year-on-year increase. June&#8217;s inflation rate also stood at 3.8%, matching expectations and slowing from 4% in May. This weaker inflation reading might lead to potential rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of Australia or at least prevent further rate hikes. Meanwhile, Japan&#8217;s Nikkei 225 rose 1.5%, reversing earlier losses, and the Topix gained 0.37%. Retail sales in Japan increased by 3.7% year-on-year in June, surpassing the 3.2% rise expected by economists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Korea&#8217;s Kospi rose 0.58%, with Samsung Electronics up 1.6% following a significant 1,458.2% year-on-year rise in second-quarter operating profit. However, the small-cap Kosdaq fell by 0.78%. Australia&#8217;s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 increased by 1.70%, while Hong Kong&#8217;s Hang Seng Index led Asian markets with a 1.9% rise. Mainland China&#8217;s CSI 300 also gained nearly 2%. Additionally, China&#8217;s securities regulatory commission replaced Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai with Li Ming, its inspection bureau chief, amid reports of Fang&#8217;s retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the U.S., the S&amp;P 500 declined as megacap tech stocks fell, with investors awaiting quarterly reports from these companies. The Federal Reserve&#8217;s latest policy meeting also drew attention. Nvidia shares dropped by 7%, Microsoft fell by approximately 0.9%, and other tech giants like Amazon, Netflix, and Meta Platforms also declined. Consequently, the S&amp;P 500 lost 0.5%, the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.28%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Upcoming Events:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>12:15 PM GMT &#8211; USD ADP Non-Farm Employment Change<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12:30 PM GMT &#8211; CAD GDP m\/m<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Employment Cost Index q\/q<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>6:00 PM GMT &#8211; USD FOMC Meeting Minutes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>6:00 PM GMT &#8211; USD Federal Funds Rate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: Asia-Pacific markets rose on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71268,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71265\/revisions\/71268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}