Asian Stock Markets Today: Live Updates

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida outlined an economic stimulus package that included tax breaks for domestic investment and measures to stimulate wage growth.

The Japan Times reported Kishida said his government aims to “stimulate investment and wage growth through measures such as reducing tax and social security burdens”.

Nikkei reported that Kishida said The hope is to “realize a virtuous economic cycle of capital investment, wage growth and investment in people”.

The stimulus package is also expected to include tax cuts on income from “key strategic sectors” including semiconductors and batteries.

– Lim Hui Jee

Bank of America has upgraded three European luxury stocks, bucking negative trends affecting the broader sector.

The MSCI index of European luxury goods companies edged higher in April as evidence emerged of weaker demand in the third quarter. It has fallen 16% from its most recent high on the 24th.

The Wall Street bank has upgraded what it believes to be “one of the cheapest stocks” in the sector, despite a 45% gain in its share price this year.

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– Ganesh Rao

Moody’s Investors Service warned in a note on Monday that a US government shutdown would be a “credit negative” event for the country.

“This will demonstrate significant constraints on fiscal policymaking at a time of declining fiscal strength as political polarization intensifies,” the note said.

Moody’s currently has a AAA stable rating with the US government. In August, Fitch downgraded the US outlook to AA+ from AAA.

The current federal spending laws expire on September 30.

– Jesse Pound

According to Adam Coons, chief portfolio manager at Winthrop Capital Management, tech giant Meta seems to be in an “identity crisis” of sorts.

The company — which operates social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp — has gone through several rounds of restructuring, leaving investors “difficult to understand what. [it] There’s going to be,” he told CNBC’s “Street Science Asia” on Monday.

But not everyone agrees, with some analysts calling it the ‘best choice on the Internet’.

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– Amala Balakrishna

Amazon announced Monday that it will invest up to $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic and take a minority ownership position in the company. The move comes as Amazon looks to capitalize on the AI ​​boom it’s creating.

Anthropic announced that it has selected Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider. In turn, the startup will offer AWS customers early access to unique features for model customization and fine-tuning capabilities.

More about the partnership can be found here.

Amazon shares rose 1.2% on Monday morning.

– Hakyung Kim, Arjun Karpal

The Federal Reserve is nearing the point where it will keep interest rates steady, albeit at a higher level than the market is used to seeing, Chicago Fed President Austin Goolsbee said on Monday.

“So we’re going to have to play by ear, how much was expected and how much was, how much was expected and already was,” the central bank official said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “But I think we’re getting close to this point where it’s more about how long we hold on than how high we go.”

Goolsbee added that Fed officials’ projections released last week about where rates were headed “were a little longer than the market thought.”

In fact, the market has corrected since that Wednesday’s release, expecting just two quarter-point rate cuts in 2024, according to CME Group Watch.

– Jeff Cox

Oil could be $100 a barrel in the U.S. and a bit higher overseas, Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth told CNBC on Monday.

“We’ve seen the global economy continue to perform well. We’ve seen some production cuts in some OPEC countries come on top of a market that’s already showing some tightening,” Wirth said. “It’s basically supply and demand, and prices have been firm here for several weeks. I think the risks are more upside than downside.”

Oil prices rose on Monday after Russia eased its fuel embargo. The energy sector led the broader market and rose 1.3% in afternoon trade.

Chevron shares rose 1.3%. The stock is up 7% this year.

— Biya Singh