Japanese stocks rose to their highest level since 1990 as the G-7 meeting took place

Governor Felipe Medalla said the Philippine central bank may keep its policy interest rates on hold for the next two or three meetings before considering a rate cut given the economy’s domestic inflation situation.

It comes after it left its benchmark interest rate on hold at 6.25% on Thursday, the first pause after nine consecutive hikes since May 2022.

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia,” Medalla said monthly inflation was “already very low” and the central bank could consider cutting interest rates after the next two or three meetings.

However, Medalla points out, “the market thinks it’s appropriate to have a divergence between our policies.” [the] American policy [of] Anywhere from 1% to 1.25%.”

“We need to be very aware of the extent to which a small difference between our policy rate and the central bank’s could lead to a significant weakening of the peso.”

The peso is currently at 55.74 to the US dollar.

Additionally, Medalla also predicts that inflation in the country will ease to around 4% by September or October. The Philippines’ core inflation was 6.6% in April.

– Lim Hui Jie, Charmaine Jacob

Shares of Chinese technology giant Alibaba fell nearly 5% in Hong Kong, leading losses on the Hong Kong index after the company missed quarterly earnings expectations late Thursday.

Alibaba posted revenue of 208.20 billion yuan ($30.12 billion), compared with the Refinitiv consensus estimate of 210.3 billion yuan, in the three months ended March.

Meanwhile, the company released A full year’s earnings 868.69 billion yuan, up 2% year-on-year, but the slowest growth rate since the company went public in 2014.

Net income was 22 billion yuan in the quarter, reversing a loss of 18.36 billion yuan a year earlier.

New Zealand’s trade surplus for April narrowed to NZ$427 million ($266.46 million) from NZ$470 million a year ago.

National Statistics Department Exports rose 10% year-on-year to NZ$6.8 billion, while imports rose 12% to NZ$6.4 billion.

Exports of milk powder, butter and cheese grew the most in April compared to last year, rising 26% year-on-year to NZ$2 billion.

Meanwhile petroleum and petroleum products led imports, rising 312% to NZ$974 million.

– Lim Hui Jee

Japan’s core inflation rose nationwide to 3.4% year-on-year in April, according to forecasts by economists polled by Reuters.

The reading rose from the previous month’s inflation rate of 3.1% and was above the central bank’s target of 2%.

Headline inflation rose to 3.5 percent in April from 3.2 percent in March.

The Japanese yen strengthened 0.2% against the greenback to 138.42, marking its highest point in nearly two months, after the US dollar index passed 103.5 overnight.

The United States and Taiwan reached an agreement on several trade items, marking an agreement on the first part of the bilateral “21st Century Trade” initiative.

The first agreement under the initiative includes: customs administration and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, services domestic control, anti-corruption and small and medium-sized enterprises, the US Trade Representative said in a release.

Commenting on the agreement, US Trade Representative Catherine Tai said, “This achievement represents an important step in strengthening the US-Taiwan economic relationship.”

The agreement comes in the face of increased pressure from China to warn against deeper bilateral engagement between the US and Taiwan.

– Jihye Lee

Bank of America has named several European stocks that are expected to outperform in three economic conditions.

“Our style cycle model … is in a ‘slowdown’ phase, but close to crossing the next phase,” Paulina Strelinska, quant strategist at Bank of America, wrote in a May 17 note to clients.

“Historically, a ‘recession’ phase is the usual successor to a ‘slowdown’ phase, but in the past a ‘boom’ phase has also followed a ‘slowdown’.”

The investment bank screened these stocks based on their ability to withstand fluctuations in each event.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about their stock picks here.

– Ganesh Rao

Cybersecurity presents an opportunity for investors right now, according to Philip Ribman, portfolio manager at Storebrand Asset Management.

Ripman, who manages the $1 billion Storebrand Global Solutions stable fund, is bullish on both cybersecurity companies.

He also explains why his fund doesn’t hold the usual mega-cap tech names.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Weissen Don

Dallas Federal Reserve President Lori Logan said Thursday that economic data points so far do not justify avoiding an interest rate hike at the Fed’s next meeting in June.

“After raising the target range for the federal funds rate at each of the last 10 FOMC meetings, we have made some progress,” he said in a speech to bankers in San Antonio. “Data in the coming weeks may show that avoiding the meeting is still appropriate. However, as of today, we are not there yet.”

Futures dropped a leg following his comments.

– Jeff Cox

Initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week, indicating some more tightness in the labor market.

First-time filings totaled 242,000 for the week ended May 13, down 22,000 from the previous week and below the Dow Jones estimate of 250,000. Department of Labor said. Continuous claims fell to 1.799 million, versus the FactSet estimate of 1.829 million.

In other economic news, The Produced by the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia The index for the region rose to -10.4, an increase of 29 percentage points and better than the estimate of -20.

However, the index, which measures the percentage of companies reporting expansion versus those seeing contraction, still shows a decline for the sector for the region.

– Jeff Cox