Asian markets rise as Wall Street boosted by hopes of debt ceiling deal

“Confusing” crypto rules could cause more companies to leave the United States for other jurisdictions like Europe and the United Arab Emirates, the CEO of blockchain services firm Ripple has said.

“I think it’s fair to say that the United States has made it as confusing as possible when it comes to the rules of the road for the crypto industry,” Garlinghouse said, as companies like Ripple demand clarification on crypto regulation.

He added that jurisdictions like Europe “have really shown leadership and “even the UK and Singapore are clarifying how they will regulate these digital assets.”

His comments come after Ripple announced on Wednesday that it had acquired Metaco, a Swiss crypto custodial services company to expand its operations overseas, at a time when US regulators are cracking down hard on companies like Ripple and Coinbase.

“Frankly, that’s why you see entrepreneurship and investment flowing into other jurisdictions and Europe has certainly been a big beneficiary of the confusion that has been going on in the United States,” Garlinghouse said, adding that companies like Ripple are encouraged to invest more outside the United States

—Sheila Chiang

Competition in China’s electric vehicle market is “just beginning”, according to consultancy Sino Auto Insights.

China’s electric vehicle market has been rocked by Tesla’s aggressive price cuts and the end of the country’s government subsidies for electric car buyers.

But Sino Auto Insights managing director Tu Le is still bullish on electric vehicle giant Tesla and its Chinese counterpart BYD.

CNBC Pro subscribers can learn more here.

— Lee Ying Shan

Japanese markets extended their winning streak on Thursday, with the Nikkei 225 leading the gains in the region and continuing to trade above the 30,000 mark.

The Topix maintained levels not seen since August 1990.

Energy and technology stocks led the Topix, with its main gainers being Sony and electronics company Tokyo Electron.

Meanwhile, Factset revealed that electronics stocks were driving the Nikkei, with the index’s top gainer being semiconductor test equipment maker Advantest, followed by Tokyo Electron.

—Lim Hui Jie

Nomura lowered its growth forecast for the full year in China from 5.9% to 5.5%, according to a note on Wednesday.

“China’s post-Covid recovery has petered out rapidly,” Nomura’s Ting Lu wrote, noting that the latest activity data and high-frequency data from May show momentum has petered out “in partly because of weak consumer and commercial investor confidence”.

“As disappointment sets in, we see a growing risk of slowing activity growth, rising unemployment, continued disinflation, falling market interest rates and a weaker currency.” , he wrote.

Nomura added that it was also cutting its 2024 gross domestic product forecast for China from 4.4% to 4.2%. He now expects second quarter GDP to grow 7.8%, third quarter to grow 4.9% and the last quarter of the year to grow 5.0%.

– Jihye Lee

Japan’s trade deficit nearly halved in April, falling to 432.41 billion from 854.93 billion a year ago.

Most notably, imports fell 2.3% year-on-year, more than the 0.3% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Exports were broadly in line with expectations, up 2.6% year-on-year vs. 3% expected.

—Lim Hui Jie

New Zealand’s producer price index rose 0.3% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the last quarter of 2022, according to government data.

The producer price index for inputs increased by 0.2%, the price index for agricultural expenditure increasing by 0.7% and the price index for capital goods increasing by 1%.

The New Zealand Dollar strengthened slightly to 0.6242 against the US Dollar.

– Jihye Lee

Nvidia, the company behind the most powerful chips used to enable artificial intelligence (AI), has the potential to increase its stock value fivefold over the next ten years, according to the investor and manager of Philip Ripman Fund.

Investor enthusiasm for Nvidia centers on its business model of selling high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) essential for running the complex algorithms behind artificial intelligence technologies. As AI has become increasingly important across industries, the demand for GPUs has increased.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more views of Ripman on Nvidia here.

—Ganesh Rao

The year is approaching the half of the year and global equities are doing much better than they did in 2022, a volatile year.

Many stocks have soared and beat the overall market, but there is still more room for investor optimism.

CNBC Pro picked stocks that beat the market nearly halfway through the year — and that analysts love. One is a Buffett favorite, and two others are top picks from BofA and Citi.

CNBC Pro subscribers can learn more here.

—Weizhen Tan

Montana has become the first US state to impose a complete ban on the TikTok video app.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said in a statement, “The Chinese Communist Party’s use of TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and harvest their personal, private, and sensitive information is well documented.”

“Today, Montana is taking the most decisive action of any state to protect the private data and sensitive personal information of Montanans from harvesting by the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote.

The governor also directed the state’s chief information officer and executive agency directors “to prohibit the use of all social media applications linked to foreign adversaries on state equipment and to affairs of state,” the statement added.

TikTok called the move “a bill that violates the First Amendment rights of Montana residents,” adding that the ban is “unlawful.”

“We want to reassure Montananese that they can continue to use TikTok to express themselves, earn a living and find community as we continue to work to defend the rights of our users inside and outside. outside of Montana,” TikTok said in a statement.

– Jihye Lee

The Federal Reserve’s rate hike cycle could come to a halt – and Bank of America thinks some smaller names could outperform.

The central bank hinted in its post-meeting statement in May that it could not raise rates beyond the current range of 5% to 5.25%. Bank of America said its economists expect lower inflation and a mild recession in the coming months after the pause in monetary policy tightening.

If this is the case and the Fed ends its rate hike campaign, investors may want to consider investing in small-cap stocks that have performed well historically.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read which Bank of America stocks think they will outperform here.

—Hakyung Kim

Tech stocks climbed higher in Wednesday’s rally. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) rose 1.2% to a 52-week high. This is the third consecutive session that the fund has achieved this milestone.

The tech ETD is up 2% this month, taking its 2023 gains to almost 24%.

Investors moved away from defensive stocks on Wednesday. Of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500, only health care, consumer staples and utilities were trading in negative territory at midday.

Health care stocks slid 0.9%, while utilities stocks fell 0.5%. Consumer staples fell 0.4%.

—Sarah Min

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed optimism on Wednesday that while debt ceiling negotiations face hurdles, he does not anticipate default.

“I think at the end of the day, we don’t have a default,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I think we finally managed to convince the president to negotiate.”

The comments come a day after President Joe Biden met with key congressional leaders to try to find a way around the debt stalemate. McCarthy said the talks resulted in a “structure” to find a solution while noting that the timeline remains “tight” as Republicans seek spending cuts and Democrats seek a clean bill unrelated to terms.

“There comes a time when you hit the wall,” McCarthy said. “You cannot continue on this trajectory if you want to continue to be the strongest nation in the world.”

—Jeff Cox