Asian markets were mixed as China cut key lending rates

Shares of Hong Kong-listed Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group trimmed losses and, in their latest trade, were down 0.2% after announcing that co-founder Eddie Wu would succeed Daniel Chang as CEO of Alibaba Group.

Wu is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Taobao and Tmall Group, and the current Executive Vice President Joesph Tsai will replace Zhang as Group Chairman.

Zhang will continue to lead the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group as chairman and chief executive officer after the change, which the company said will become effective on September 10.

– Lim Hwi Ji, Clement Tan

The RBA said it made the decision to raise its benchmark interest rate to 4.1% after seeing that inflation data had “turned to the upside” and that domestic inflation would take longer to return to its target.

in minutes The central bank revealed, released from the RBA meeting in June, that members were deliberating between raising or suspending interest rates to assess additional data.

The case for raising rates won out, however, as the argument was that inflation had already been expected to be above target for a number of years and was expected to take somewhat longer to return to target in Australia than in some other countries.

The RBA noted that inflation rose in Australia in April, and that the drop in commodity inflation was smaller than observed in other countries.

The minutes added that “service price inflation has not yet shown signs of moderation, and indications from abroad indicate that it may be continuing.”

– Lim Hwi Ji

Shares of mainland Chinese real estate developers fell more than 3% after China cut prime interest rates for five-year loans less than some economists expected.

Reuters said that according to a survey it conducted prior to the announcement, 16 out of 32 analysts surveyed expected a deeper cut of at least 15 basis points to the five-year principal loan rate.

The five-year LPR, which serves as a mortgage reference rate, was cut by 10 basis points, to 4.2%.

Real estate stocks on the Hang Seng Index led the losses, with the mainland Hang Seng Properties Index dropping more than 3.5%.

Real estate developer Country Garden Holdings was the biggest loser in the HSI, down 5.65%, while real estate investment firm Longfor Group fell 4.94%.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Port congestion has mostly returned to normal and disruption related to the Covid consumption boom is “definitely behind us”, said Parash Jain. Head of Transport Research at HSBC Asia Pacific.

“What we’re seeing right now is a massive destocking going on in the US,” Jin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday.

US port import data is down about 20% year-over-year but, Jain said, “still holds together better” than in 2019. He added that normalization is happening in air freight as well.

Overall merchandise volume has returned to pre-Covid trends, Jin said.

– Audrey Wan

China cut the main interest rates for one- and five-year loans by 10 basis points each, the first cut since August.

The one-year LPR stands at 3.55%, down from 3.65%, while the five-year LPR has been reduced to 4.20% from 4.30%. These moves reflect the cuts China made last week to its short- and medium-term borrowing rates.

After the announcement, the offshore yuan fell 0.13% to trade at 7.172 per dollar.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Japanese trading houses jumped at the open on Tuesday after Berkshire Hathaway raised its stake in five Japanese trading companies to more than 8.5% on average.

Mitsui shares jumped 4.55%, Marubeni rose 3.44%, Mitsubishi rose nearly 4%, while Itocho and Sumitomo rose 3% each.

Japan’s top five trading houses saw renewed momentum thanks to Warren Buffett, bucking the trend as Japanese stocks continued to fall for a second day.

The company said the company had indicated that the total value of those interests exceeded the value of shares owned by Berkshire in any country outside the United States.

– Jihye Lee, Elliot Smith, Ruxandra Iordach

The People’s Bank of China is expected to cut interest rates on its 1-year and 5-year prime loans later today.

Economists polled by Reuters expected a 10 basis point cut to the one-year base rate and a 15 basis point cut to the 5-year base rate, according to Factset.

China last cut its LPR notes in August 2022. Investors will be watching today’s decision closely after the central bank cut its medium-term lending facility and reverse repo rate for seven days.

– Jihe Lee

The global auto giant may be the next company to sign a deal with Tesla to use its supercharger stations, according to RBC analyst Tom Narayan.

If the agreement passes, the deal would follow similar partnerships that Tesla has agreed with Ford and General Motors.

Investors have rewarded all parties to the transaction in the past. The day after the agreement, Tesla and Ford shares rose 4.7% and 6.2%, respectively. The automaker’s share prices have risen more than 25% since then.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Ganesh Rao

Outstanding portfolio manager Jordan Svitanovsky has looked for certain traits in the companies he has selected in the past nearly 20 years.

And the results have proven consistent throughout the global financial crisis, the era of zero interest rates – and now high interest rates.

One fund managed by Pella Funds Management’s Cvetanovski has outperformed its benchmark by a whopping 27% in a four-year period.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Wizen tan

The three major averages hit milestones with wins last week, though Friday ended in a slump.

While the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ended Friday’s session in the red, all three indices were up for the week.

The S&P 500 jumped 2.6% for the week, its strongest weekly performance since March and its fifth positive week in a row – the first since it ended a streak of the same length in November 2021. The technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 3.25% over the week. week, its best since March and its eighth consecutive positive week for the first time since it ended a 10-week streak in March 2019.

The Dow Jones also posted modest weekly gains, adding 1.25% and posting its third consecutive positive week since April of this year.

–Darla Mercado, Chris Hayes