On Thursday morning (15 August, 9:34AM, GMT+7, Bangkok time), indices in Asia Pacific increased following Japan’s stronger-than-expected GDP growth figures. Investors also analyzed China’s retail sales, industrial output, and urban unemployment data for July.
Japan exceeded market expectations in Q2 with a 0.8% QoQ GDP growth, surpassing economists’ forecast of a 0.5% increase. This marked a turnaround from the revised 0.6% decline recorded in the first quarter. However, on a YoY basis, Japan experienced a second consecutive quarterly GDP contraction, declining by 0.8% following a 0.9% shrinkage in Q1.
China’s retail sales outperformed expectations, registering a 2.7% YoY growth, surpassing economists’ projected 2.6% increase. Conversely, industrial output posted a growth of 5.1%, slightly below the forecasted 5.2%. The urban unemployment rate saw a marginal uptick to 5.2% in July from 5% the previous month.
Meanwhile, South Korea and India stock markets are not trading today due to a public holiday.
Japan’s NIKKEI rose by 0.83% to 36,745.92, and Australia’s ASX 200 grew by 0.23% to 7,868.9.
As for stocks in China, Shanghai’s SSEC jumped by 1.05% to 2,880.58. Hong Kong’s HSI climbed by 0.39% to 17,180.8, and Shenzhen’s SZI gained 1.04% to 8,397.16.
Meanwhile, the US stock markets edged up on Wednesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) surged by 0.61% to 40,008.39. NASDAQ grew by 0.03% to 17,192.6, while S&P 500 increased by 0.38% to 5,455.21. VIX slumped by 10.65% to 16.19.
As for commodities, oil prices settled lower on Wednesday as U.S. crude inventories saw an unexpected increase. Concerns also slightly subsided regarding a potential supply threat from the Middle East, a key region for global crude production. Brent futures declined 93 cents or 1.15% to settle at $79.76 a barrel, and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost $1.37 or 1.8% to settle at $76.98 per barrel.
This morning, Brent futures rose 10 cents or 0.13% to $79.86 a barrel, and the WTI edged up 15 cents or 0.19% to $77.13 per barrel.
Meanwhile, gold futures climbed by 0.38% to $2,489.1 per Troy ounce.
