Nikkei hits new 34-year high and Singapore budget | Top Vip News

Coinbase Global shares rose more than 14% in after-hours trading after the crypto exchange posted its first quarterly profit since 2021 on Thursday, helped by rising trading volumes.

Alesia Haas, chief financial officer at Coinbase, attributed the strong gains to recent fervor in the cryptocurrency market following the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the US last month.

“We are now the proud custodian of 90% of the total cryptocurrency ETFs, and that has really directly benefited our platform, but what I would say is that we have seen widespread growth across the space with this enthusiasm (bitcoin ETFs)” . he told CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime.”

The price of bitcoin rose more than 50% in the final three months of last year, while Coinbase’s transaction volume jumped 64% to $529.3 million during the same period.

Coinbase’s momentum “remains strong” heading into the first quarter, Owen Lau, CEO and senior analyst at Oppenheimer, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.

“We still have a lot of uncertainty from a regulatory point of view, but we are going in the right direction,” he said. “We anticipate fairly sustainable profitability in the coming quarters.”

– Dylan Butts

Beijing needs to show “clearer signals” of aggressive policy easing to curb slowing growth, Chinese markets expert Yan Wang said on Friday.

“Other than that, I doubt the market can recover sustainably,” Wang, chief emerging markets and China strategist at global investment strategy and research firm Alpine Macro, said on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”

Investment banks expect China’s economy to expand at a slower pace in 2024 compared to 2023; Even last year, the Chinese economy had a slower-than-expected recovery after emerging from Covid-19 restrictions.

“The government has refused to issue very strong stimulus to help the economy and structurally, the policy shift Beijing has made in recent years has damaged confidence,” Wang said.

Chinese markets are closed this week for the Chinese New Year holidays.

–Sheila Chiang

Singapore’s domestic non-oil exports rose 16.8% in January from a year earlier, from a one-year low base, official data showed.

The reading comes after a 1.5% drop in December. Exports of both electronic and non-electronic products grew, according to a statement published by Enterprise SG.

“NODX (domestic non-oil exports) to major markets as a whole grew in January 2024, mainly due to China, the United States and Hong Kong; although NODX to the EU27, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand decreased” , said.

On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, Singapore’s NODX rose 2.3%, non-electronic products grew while electronics exports fell.

—Lee Ying Shan

The Nikkei 225 is expected to reach all-time highs as it is trading above 38,600 points and has been scaling 34-year highs.

A new all-time high for the Nikkei is “imminent,” Morgan Stanley wrote in a research note dated Feb. 15, maintaining its bullish stance on Japanese stocks.

“The Nikkei index has risen above 38,000 and now appears likely to break in the near term the all-time high of 38,916 that was set as early as December 1989,” Morgan Stanley economists wrote.

The index is currently trading 1.37% higher.

—Lee Ying Shan

Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday that it was up to the Bank of Japan to decide when it would end its negative interest rate policy, according to a Reuters report.

Japan’s economy has lost its place as the world’s third largest to Germany, falling into a technical recession and raising hopes that the central bank can maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy for longer.

“I am aware that there are various opinions in the market,” Suzuki reportedly said when asked if the weak gross domestic product data could affect the timing of the central bank’s policy changes.

– Lee Ying Shan, Reuters

All three major stock indexes finished the day higher, with the S&P 500 hitting a new record high.

The broad market index rose 0.58% to finish at 5,029.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 348.85 points, or 0.91%, to finish at 38,773.12. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.30% to close at 15,906.17.

—Lisa Kailai Han

The S&P 500 closed above 5,000 for the first time last week. But as the index rose, so did concerns about its valuation.

However, investors need not fear as there could still be plenty of room for the rally to occur, according to Capital Economics.

The research firm’s chief market economist revealed his price target in a note to clients titled: “The bubble may be far from bursting.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

—Ganesh Rao

Oil prices rose on Thursday on the weakening dollar after recovering from earlier losses due to a weak demand forecast for 2024.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for March gained $1.46, or 1.91%, to $78.10 a barrel. The Brent contract for April was quoted at $82.83 a barrel, adding $1.23 or 1.51% a barrel.

Oil prices found support in the weakening dollar after U.S. retail sales in January fell more than expected, said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group.

Futures fell about 1% early in the trading session after the Paris-based International Energy Agency forecast demand would grow by 1.2 million barrels per day this year, nearly 50%. less than growth of 2.3 million bpd in 2023.

—Spencer Kimball

Many American companies have caught the attention of investors amid the artificial intelligence boom, but there are “underappreciated beneficiaries” in Asia-Pacific, according to Morgan Stanley.

He said Japan stands out, with 53% of companies considered beneficiaries of AI, almost matching the 54% in the United States, above the 50% in Europe and 39% in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan.

Here are some names on Morgan Stanley’s AI beneficiary screens (enablers, adopters and those who are both) that it says have the “highest potential for outperformance over the next 12 months.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

—Weizhen Tan