South Korea and Taiwan lead declines in Asian markets as technology companies decline after Apple’s rating was downgraded

Shares of Chinese online gaming companies listed in Hong Kong rose on Wednesday after Reuters reported that China had fired an official at a government body that oversees the gaming sector.

Tencent shares rose 0.5% while NetEase added 0.68%, with China’s CSI Anime Comic Game Index rising 0.82%.

Feng Xixin was dismissed last week from his position as head of the publishing unit of the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The department oversees the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), which in turn regulates China’s video game sector.

China’s NPPA published draft rules in late December, which sought to ban incentivizing daily logins for games, among other revenue-generating practices.

The country softened its stance within days of publishing the draft in the wake of a slump in gaming stocks that saw Tencent lose more than $43 billion in market value.

Video game stocks were even stranger on Wednesday, with the broader Hang Seng index falling 1.27%, while China’s CSI 300 index fell 0.57%.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Shares of Apple suppliers in Asia fell on Wednesday, tracking a 4% decline in the iPhone maker overnight after Barclays downgraded the stock.

Barclays downgraded Apple to below normal weight and cut its price target to $160 from $161.

Samsung Electronics shares fell as much as 3.01%, leading to losses for South Korea’s Kospi index, which fell by 1.78%. The South Korean electronics giant, as well as some of its subsidiaries, supply Apple with its displays and battery components.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a supplier of Apple chips, also fell as much as 2.02%, while shares of Hon Hai Precision Industry, which assembles iPhones and is known globally as Foxconn, fell 0.48%.

– Lim Hui Ji, Shreyashi Sanyal

China’s slowing economy and real estate issues have turned many investors bearish in 2023 – but one sees a lot of hope in certain parts of the country’s market.

“The view was: why invest in… [Chinese economy]“…I think there are a lot of people who have a bit of a bearish view, and maybe think that China is on the verge of collapse. I don’t share that view,” said Kingsley Jones, founder and chief investment officer of Australia-based investment firm Jevons Global.

“I think there is a strong part of the Chinese economy, so don’t buy the Chinese economy as a whole, buy strength,” he said, listing the sectors and stocks he supports.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Amala Balakrishner

Goldman Sachs added a number of stocks to its top picks lists, and a number of them received significant gains.

These lists, called the “Directors’ Edition Condemnation List,” include the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

These lists are the bank’s “curated, active” picks of 15 to 30 top-rated stocks to buy for each region.

CNBC Pro takes a look at five of them, one of which is up more than 100%. All price targets are for 12 months from December 2023.

Subscribers can read more here.

-Weezin Tan

Singapore’s private property market growth will decline in 2023, with annual housing sales falling to a seven-year low.

The private housing price index rose 6.7% last year, down from an 8.6% rise in 2022, according to data released by the Urban Development Authority.

Total sales volume in 2023 fell by 15%, to the lowest level since 2016.

During the fourth quarter of 2023, the preliminary estimate for the URA Private Residential Price Index rose 2.7% year-on-year, driven by sales of newly launched projects. But sales fell quarter-on-quarter, with private residential sales volume down 27%.

The Singapore government will increase housing supply in 2024, with plans to launch 5,450 units in the first half of the year.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Shares in Australia got off to a weak start on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index down almost 1% moments after the open.

The index recorded its highest level ever during the day during the previous session at 7632.70.

Australian shares ended 2023 with a gain of 7.84%, and were among the Asia-Pacific markets to end the year on a positive note.

Shares were supported by hopes that the Reserve Bank of Australia will no longer raise interest rates after the central bank held interest rates steady at its last meeting of 2023, driven in part by the Fed’s more dovish bent.

The Australian dollar rose by 0.06% during the day.

– Shreyashi Sanyal

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, as traders monitored escalating tensions in the Red Sea, against the backdrop of record US production and faltering demand in China.

The February West Texas Intermediate contract lost $1.27, or 1.77%, to settle at $70.38 a barrel. The March Brent contract fell $1.15, or 1.49%, to trade at $75.89.

Crude oil prices had jumped more than 2% earlier in the trading session due to escalating tensions in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade corridor.

Danish shipping giant Maersk announced on Tuesday that it would suspend shipping through the Red Sea until further notice after one of its ships was attacked by gunmen over the weekend.

“The market is basically saying: ‘We’ll wait and see until something happens,'” RBC Capital Markets’ Helima Croft told CNBC on Tuesday. “But it becomes more dangerous every day,” she said of tensions in the region.

-Spencer Kimball

After ending 2023 strong, the S&P 500 ended its first trading day of the new year in the red.

The 500-share index fell 0.57% to settle at 4,742.83, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.63% to close at 14,765.94, marking its worst day since October.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25 points, or 0.07%, to 37,715.04. He had earlier gained up to 100 pips and lost nearly 194 during today’s trading session.

-Lisa Kailai Han

The U.S. manufacturing sector contracted more than expected in December, according to the new purchasing managers’ index from S&P Global.

The manufacturing PMI came in at 47.9 in December, down from 49.4 in November and below the 48.2 that economists had expected, according to the Dow Jones Index. The decline in new orders was one of the factors that affected the PMI.

“Given current order book trends, the overall picture from the survey is one of supply outpacing demand for many commodities, suggesting downside risks to production, employment and prices as we head into 2024,” said Chris Williams, chief business economist at S&P Global. Market Intelligence said in the statement.

-Jesse Pound

Some of the biggest cybersecurity stocks saw bigger declines, with Crowdstrike and Zscaler both down more than 3%.

-Jesse Pound