1 hour ago
European stocks start lower
Europe's Stoxx 600 index was down 0.15% as of 8:10 a.m. in London, as last week's strong momentum stalled.
Stock exchanges were mixed, with France's CAC 40 index up 0.05%, Germany's DAX index flat and Britain's FTSE 100 index down 0.3%.
See chart…
STOXX 600 index.
4 hours ago
Singapore's manufacturing output in February far exceeded expectations
Singapore's manufacturing industry rose 14.2% month-on-month in February, a sharp reversal from January's revised 6.7% decline, and significantly higher than the 3.1% increase predicted by Reuters.
Manufacturing production rose 3.8% from a year earlier, exceeding the 0.5% increase expected in a Reuters poll.
The Singapore Economic Development Board said all of the country's manufacturing clusters expanded in February, except for general manufacturing and precision engineering.
— Lim Huijie
5 hours ago
Sri Lanka's central bank unexpectedly cuts interest rates
Central Bank of Sri Lanka sign in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Kuni Takahashi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka lowered its key lending rate on Tuesday, according to a monetary policy statement.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has reduced the standing deposit facility interest rate to 8.50% and the standing loan facility interest rate to 9.50%, each by 50 basis points. The medium-term inflation target remains unchanged at 5%.
The central bank said it expected the easing measures to be “quickly permeated by financial institutions into the economy, thereby accelerating the normalization of market interest rates going forward.”
According to Reuters, 11 out of 16 economists and analysts surveyed expected interest rates to remain unchanged.
— Shreyashi Sanyal
8 hours ago
Japan's services PPI rose 2.1% in February
Japan's services producer price index rose 2.1% in February from the same month last year, according to official data.
Services PPI continued to rise at the same pace in January.
The Bank of Japan last week ended its experiment with negative interest rates, along with other non-traditional easing measures aimed at stimulating the economy.
Japanese markets rose on Tuesday, with the Nikkei Stock Average trading well at around 40,000 yen. The broader TOPIX index rose 0.08%.
— Shreyashi Sanyal
9 hours ago
Rising semiconductor stocks push South Korea's Kospi to two-year high
South Korea's Kospi hit a two-year high on Tuesday as major semiconductor stocks rose.
The index rose to 2,769, the highest level since February 10, 2022.
The Kospi has gained 15% in the past 12 months and is up 4.93% so far in 2024.
The index was supported by gains in leading companies Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which rose 1.66% and 3.25%, respectively.
11 hours ago
New York Stock Exchange preparing to delist EV maker Fisker shares
The New York Stock Exchange has notified the struggling electric car maker Fisker that it will suspend trading of its shares and begin the process of delisting the stock.
NYSE regulations cited Fisker's “unusually low” trading price as a factor in the decision, the company said in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The stock was suspended early Monday, at a price of about 9 cents per share.
News of Fisker's upcoming delisting comes after negotiations over a potential deal between Fisker and an unnamed major automaker broke down.
The stock is down about 95% in 2024 and more than 98% in the past year.
–Darla Mercado
11 hours ago
Investors remain in cyclical sectors despite risk of market pullback, strategists say
Last week, the market hit new highs following the March FOMC meeting. But Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, believes a stock market decline could be on the horizon.
“We're coming off the post-FOMC high,” he told CNBC in an interview Monday. “The market is becoming increasingly vulnerable to market declines and price declines.”
Still, investors remain focused on cyclical sectors, and Stovall expects activity to improve in the energy, industrials and materials categories.
“They continue to say that the market is likely to benefit from lower interest rates and we will see an impact on more cyclical sectors,” he said. “It doesn't look like investors are being very defensive right now. Instead of getting into consumer staples, health care and utilities, investors will continue to gravitate towards materials, industrials and energy.”
— Lisa Kailai Han
12 hours ago
