Category: Market

Washington, Shares were lower in Asia on Friday after a late afternoon sell-off wiped out gains for stocks on Wall Street, said an AP report.

Tokyo fell 1.4% after Toyota Motor Corp. announced production cuts due to parts shortages. Other major regional markets also fell. Oil prices slipped, with the U.S. benchmark crude down as much as 2.3%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.79% from 1.83% late Thursday. Investors are bracing for higher interest rates and stocks are headed for weekly losses in what has so far been a losing month. Oil prices also fell, with the U.S. benchmark crude future down 2.3%.

Surging coronavirus cases have added to jitters over supply chain problems that are disrupting manufacturing.

Toyota, Japan’s top automaker, said it will suspend production at 11 plants in Japan for three days, on top of reductions planned in February. Those cuts mean it will fall short of the 9 million vehicles planned for the fiscal year through March, despite healthy demand.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 535 points to 27,338.34 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gave up 0.7% to 24,777.50. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.8% to 3,525.38.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney dropped 2.2% to 7,182.30. South Korea’s Kospi slid 1.5% to 2,820.77.

On Thursday, a late-afternoon sell-off wiped out gains for stocks on Wall Street, sending major indexes deeper into losing territory for the year.

The S&P 500 lost 1.1% to 4,482.73, a three-month low, with nearly 85% of stocks in the index falling. It’s now down 6% for the year.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.3% to 14,154.02, after rising as much as 2.1%. By Wednesday, the index’s recent losses had left it in what Wall Street considers a market correction, or 10% below its peak.

More than 500 Nasdaq stocks hit 52-week lows Thursday, including Starbucks and T-Mobile. Apple fell 1% and chipmaker Nvidia shed 3.7%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 0.9% to 34,715.39. The sharp about-face for the broader market was once again directed by technology stocks, which have been behind choppy trading throughout the week.

The downturn follows a strong 2021, when the S&P 500 gained 26.9%.

The Labor Department provided a disappointing update, reporting that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to its highest level in three months as the fast-spreading omicron variant continued to disrupt the job market.

The job market has had a rocky recovery from the virus pandemic though the unemployment rate fell last month to a pandemic low of 3.9%.

Investors are closely watching to see how employment data might affect the Federal Reserve approach to weaning the economy of its support by raising interest rates.

The Fed is now expected to raise rates earlier and more often than it had previously signaled to fight inflation that is threatening the economic recovery. Supply chain problems and higher raw materials costs have prompted businesses to raise prices on finished goods, leading consumers to eventually rein in spending.

The latest round of corporate earnings is also giving investors a clearer picture of where Americans are spending money and how inflation is impacting the economy.

American Airlines fell 3.2% and United Airlines slipped 3.4% after warning investors that the latest surge in COVID-19 cases will hurt their finances early in 2022. Both airlines reported losses for the fourth quarter, though they were smaller than analysts’ expected.

Peloton shares lost nearly 24% after CNBC reported the company is temporarily halting production of its treadmills and exercise bikes after seeing demand for the equipment fall.

Peloton shares soared early in the pandemic as people exercised at home, but have dropped 85% since closing at an all-time high of $167.42 on Jan. 13, 2021.

In other trading, U.S. crude oil lost $1.75 to $83.80 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It shed 25 cents to $85.80 on Thursday.

Brent crude oil, the basis for pricing international oil, lost $1.69 to $86.89 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 113.74 Japanese yen from 114.10 yen late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.1329 from $1.1313.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Abu Dhabi, Most stock markets in the Gulf ended higher on Wednesday, supported by strong oil prices, with the Abu Dhabi index outperforming the region.

 

Crude prices, a key catalyst for the Gulf’s financial markets, rose for a fourth day after a fire on a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey briefly stopped flows, increasing concerns about an already tight supply outlook.

 

The Abu Dhabi index advanced 1.6%, buoyed by a 3.9% rise in the country’s largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.

 

Credit ratings agency S&P Global said its AA score of Abu Dhabi already factored in geopolitical risks after Yemen’s Houthi group launched drone and missile strikes in the emirate which set off explosions in fuel trucks and killed three people.

 

The United Arab Emirates called for a meeting of the UN Security Council to condemn the attack on Abu Dhabi, capital of the region’s commercial and tourism hub, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

 

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index gained 0.5%, with Al Rajhi Bank rising 1.5%, while petrochemical maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) advanced 1.8%.

 

SABIC plans to build a petrochemicals plant in the city of Jubail on the gulf coast in the Eastern Province, after a similar plant in South Korea starts production by year-end, CEO Yousef Abdullah al-Benyan told Asharq TV on Tuesday.

 

The kingdom issued 2.833 billion riyal ($755.20 million) domestic sukuk, or Islamic bonds, for the month of January, the kingdom’s National Debt Management Center said on Tuesday.

 

Dubai’s main share index eased 0.3%, hit by a 1.2% fall in its top lender Emirates NBD and a 0.2% decrease in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties.

 

Dubai’s stocks recorded some price corrections as investors moved to secure their gains, said Wael Makarem, senior market strategist at Exness.

 

The Qatari benchmark added 0.3%, led by a 1.5% gain in petrochemical firm Industries Qatar.

 

Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index dropped 1.4%, as most of the stocks on the index were in negative territory including Commercial International Bank.

 

Source: Bahrain News Agency

New York, The United Nations forecast lower global economic growth for 2022 and 2023 on Thursday, saying the world is facing new waves of coronavirus infections, persistent labor market challenges, lingering supply chain issues and rising inflationary pressures.

The U.N. said that after expanding 5.5% in 2021 — the highest rate of global economic growth in more than four decades — the world economy is projected to grow only 4% in 2022 and 3.5% in 2023, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Liu Zhenmin, the U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, said at a news conference releaseasing the economic report that two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic “we are still living in a time of great uncertainty.”

“At the start of 2022, the global economic picture in the market is still murky,” he said. “Job creation has not yet made up for the earliest losses with the employment deficits disproportionately affecting women and youth. At the same time, the spread of a new COVID-19 virus, supply challenges, rapidly rising inflation in many parts of the world, and the looming debt challenges are clouding the economic outlook.”

Last year’s robust recovery was largely driven by consumer spending, some increase in investments and trade in goods surpassing levels before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.N. World Economic Situation and Prospects 2022 report.

But the momentum for growth “slowed considerably by the end of 2021, including in big economies, like China, the European Union and the United States” as the impacts of monetary and financial stimuli from the pandemic began to recede and major supply chain disruptions emerged, the report said.

The United Nations forecast is similar to the World Bank’s. released on Tuesday.

The 189-nation global financial institution that provides loans and grants to low and middle-income countries downgraded its forecast of worldwide economic growth to 4.1% this year from the 4.3% growth it was forecasting last June. It blamed continuing outbreaks of COVID-19, a reduction in government economic support and ongoing bottlenecks in global supply chains.

The U.N. report said labor shortages in developed economies are adding to supply chain challenges and inflationary pressures, and growth in most developing countries and economies in transition has generally been weaker.

While higher commodity prices have helped countries reliant on commodity exports, rising food and energy prices have triggered rapid inflation, particularly in the nine-member Commonwealth of Independent States, formed after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in Latin America and the Caribbean, the U.N. said.

“Recovery has been especially slow in tourism-dependent economies, notably in the small island developing states,” it said.

Hamid Rashid, chief of the U.N.’s Global Economic Monitoring Branch, said at the press conference that the U.N. projections of global economic growth are contingent on several assumptions.

“One assumption is that the vaccination progress that we have been making will continue, that there will be no more major disruptions, or pandemic-related disruptions again in the near term, in the next few quarters,” he said, “And, of course, there’ll be no major surprises with the monetary policy stances that we have in advanced economies.”

Rashid said looking beyond GDP numbers, the world has to take into account the rising poverty and inequality in developed countries but mostly in developing countries. He called it worrisome that 64 million more people are living in extreme poverty in 2022 than in 2019, before the pandemic.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The time is now to close the inequality gaps within and among countries.”

“If we work in solidarity — as one human family — we can make 2022 a true year of recovery for people and economies alike,” he said.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

Beijing, China’s new home prices fell more slowly in December than a month earlier, official data showed on Saturday, as marginal easing on financing curbs, and promotions by property developers helped to stabilise demand.

Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities declined 0.2% in December from a month earlier, slower than a 0.3% drop in November, according to Reuters calculations from data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China’s property market has slowed since June 2021 as regulators stepped up their deleveraging campaign against the bloated sector, triggering defaults at some heavily indebted companies, Reuters reported.

But the decline moderated as authorities and property developers in multiple cities introduced measures in December to boost home sales, with local governments providing subsidies for buyers and real estate firms offering discounts. read more

Monthly prices picked up in 15 of 70 cities, up from nine cities that reported price gains in November.

“The property market is gradually bottoming out with the period of tightest credit over,” said Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at property agency Centaline. First- and second-tier cities will be the first to emerge from the downturn, he said.

New home prices rose 2.6% year-on-year in December, slower than the 3.0% growth recorded in November.

In a recent note, Oxford Economics analysts said they expect central and local authorities to take steps to contain risks from defaults by property developers, such as increasing credit to the sector and tweaking the strict “three red lines” policy introduced to curb borrowing by developers.

A payment extension granted by bondholders to beleaguered developer China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) came as authorities increasingly emphasise the need to maintain economic stability.

Yan Yuejin, research director of Shanghai-based E-house China Research and Development Institute said he expects property policies to continue to ease in the first quarter given the large economic impact of the real estate market.

“The December data is a positive sign, pointing to home prices not falling further.”

Source: Bahrain News Agency

The Ministry of Commerce & Industry conducted inspection campaigns on retail outlets and street vendors across Qatar, including the areas of Mukaynis, Al-Hilal, Al-Ghanim Al-Ateeq, Fareej Al-Hitmi, and Al-Riffa.

The inspection campaigns resulted in releasing 19 violations against several retail outlets for committing breaches of the law. These included failing to place an introductory sign on the storefront, failing to write the commercial registration number on the shop sign, failing to match the trade name with the name on the shop sign, practicing a commercial activity before obtaining the required approvals from the competent authorities, expiration of the commercial license, and not having a commercial license.

Moreover, a violation was released against a street vendor for practicing his activities without obtaining a commercial license. The violator was referred to the competent authorities to take the necessary legal measures.

These inspection campaigns stem from the Ministry’s keenness to protect consumer rightsand to monitor the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations governing the commercial sector.

In this regard, the Ministry stressed that it would not tolerate any negligence in terms of meeting obligations stipulated in law No. (5) of 2015 on Commercial, Industrial, and Similar Public Shops, and Street Vendors, as well as noncompliance with Ministerial Resolution No. (243) of 2016 on the licensing requirements and regulations to engage in street vendor activities.

The Ministry is working to intensify its inspection campaigns to control violating practices, and to refer those who infringe laws and Ministerial decisions to the relevantauthorities to take the appropriate measures.

Source: Ministry of Commerce and Industry