Asia-Pacific shares trade mixed; China manufacturing activity shows growth

China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) posted an expansion for the first time since October 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

China’s manufacturing activity for January came in at 50.1, above the 50-point threshold separating growth from contraction.

The reading beats Reuters’ forecasts of 49.8, and stands higher than December’s figure of 47.

Similarly, China’s non-manufacturing PMI, which comprise of the services, catering and construction sector, rose to 54.5 from 41.6 in December.

—Lee Ying Shan

Samsung Electronics recorded a steep 69% decline in profits to 4.3 trillion won ($3.49 billion) on Tuesday on the back of a slump in demand for consumer electronics.

“Demand for smartphones remained sluggish with the mass market contracting sharply due to continued inflation and geopolitical instability,” Samsung’s earnings release stated.

Samsung’s shares last traded down 3%.

—Lee Ying Shan

Adani Group founder and chairman Gautam Adani’s net worth fell by $36 billion year-to-date as of Monday’s market close, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Adani, the richest man in Asia and once second only to Elon Musk, fell out of the world’s top 10 richest to 11th place on the Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, as of Monday’s close.

His net worth peaked at $150 billion on Sept. 20, 2022, before falling to $84.4 billion as of Monday’s close, according to the index.

Adani Enterprises’ stock price remains more than 25% lower month-to-date, Refinitiv data showed. It proceeded with a secondary share sale worth $2.5 billion, which was overshadowed by a rout that wiped out a total of $65 billion as of Monday’s close.

– Jihye Lee

The recovery in Chinese stocks gained steam on Monday, as China’s benchmark index came within striking distance of a bull market.

Bernstein’s analysts believe the rally has further to go and reveal their top stocks to play it.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Zavier Ong

South Korea’s factory output for December fell 7.3%, marking its worst annualized reading in more than two and a half years since May 2020’s figure of a 9.6% plunge.

The reading was steeper than Reuters’ expectations of a 5.1% drop, as well as November’s 3.4% decline.

—Lee Ying Shan

Stocks closed lower Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average snapping a six-day win streak.

The Dow declined 260.99 points, or 0.77%, to 33,717.09. The S&P 500 fell 1.3% to 4,017.77. The Nasdaq Composite dropped by 1.96% to 11,393.81.

— Sarah Min

Tesla‘s stock has been on a “wild ride” and it’s time to sell, according to Carter Worth, CEO and Founder of Carter Braxton Worth Charting.

Shares of the electric-vehicle maker have surged 38% since the start of the year, following last year’s 65% plunge. Last week, Tesla reported record revenue and an earnings beat. CEO Elon Musk also said the company was on target to potentially produce 2 million vehicles this year.

“It just feels a little bit crowded, steep; too far, too fast,” Worth said on CNBC’s “The Exchange.” The name is also the most active in the options market, he pointed out.

“It is a rally to a difficult level,” he added. “”The play here, if you are long, is to exit and with new money, I would be short.”

— Michelle Fox

Investors should fade the early 2023 rally, warned JPMorgan’s top market strategist Marko Kolanovic.

The first quarter will likely mark a turning point for the market – and its upward trajectory probably won’t continue, he said.

“The fundamental confirmation for the next leg higher might not come,” Kolanovic said in a Monday note to investors. “And instead markets could encounter an air-pocket of weaker earnings and activity as they move through Q2 and Q3.”

He anticipates that the backdrop for corporate profits will start to turn lower as pricing power reverses.

The strategist’s comments arrive as stocks take a breather from their latest run. Still, the S&P 500 is up more than 5% for the year, while the Nasdaq Composite has bounced more than 9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 2.3% in 2023.

Kolanovic also foresees a “postponement rather than fading of recession risk.” Though U.S. gross domestic product rose at an annualized pace of 2.9% in the fourth quarter, there is weakness underlying that headline number, “as private demand printed its weakest growth since the start of the recovery,” the strategist said.

“A weak trajectory for US domestic demand keeps recession risk elevated, even as the tightness in labor markets postpones this recession risk,” Kolanovic wrote. “Meanwhile, restrictive real policy rates represent an ongoing headwind, keeping the risk of a recession later in the year high.”

–Darla Mercado