Evergrande, Singapore MAS, Hong Kong GDP, FRB

Oil prices rose after a missile fired by Iranian-backed militants killed a US soldier in Jordan.

On Monday, global benchmark Brent crude oil traded 0.35% higher at $83.84 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 0.42% to $78.34 per barrel.

Three U.S. service members were killed Sunday in an unmanned aerial drone attack on troops stationed at an outpost in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, the White House said.

—Li Yingshan

Singapore’s central bank on Monday left monetary policy unchanged as expected in its first quarterly monetary policy decision of 2024.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has announced that it will maintain an exchange rate policy range known as the Singapore Dollar Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (S$NEER).

“MAS will closely monitor global and domestic economic developments and remain vigilant against risks to inflation and growth,” the central bank said in a policy statement.

The central bank expects the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to improve in 2024, with growth expected to be between 1% and 3%.

MAS said core inflation is expected to rise in the current quarter “partly due to the temporary impact of the 1 percentage point hike in GST from January this year”. Singapore increased its goods and services tax by 1 percentage point on January 1st.

The benchmark Straits Times Index rose 0.1% in early trade.

Read the full text here.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

While demand for artificial intelligence applications is growing rapidly, some non-tech companies are well-positioned to directly benefit from the AI ​​boom in the coming years, according to Scotiabank.

Analysts at the Bank of Canada’s investment banking division have named six stocks that are well-positioned to take advantage of surging demand.

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— Ganesh Rao

The Fed’s recommended inflation measure, the Core Price Consumer Expenditure Index, rose 0.2% in December from the previous month, in line with Dow Jones forecasts. Year over year, core PCE increased by 2.9%, slightly below expectations of 3%.

— Fred Imbert

Market experts are praising the gross domestic product (GDP) and consumer spending data released this week. But that doesn’t mean they expect the Fed to cut rates anytime soon.

The two data points painted a picture of an economy that is cooling without falling into recession and boosted investor optimism.

Still, traders are pricing in a more than 97% chance that the central bank will keep rates unchanged at next week’s policy meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The bank also expects the probability of borrowing costs remaining unchanged at the March meeting to be more than 52%, up sharply from around 17% a month ago.

Quincy Crosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial, said Friday’s PCE data is “clearly market-friendly, even if it doesn’t indicate at this point that the Fed will cut rates at its March 20th meeting.” ” he said.

But Crosby said cutting rates is a matter of “when,” not “if,” adding that the Fed is likely to begin lowering rates during its May or June meeting.

Sonu Varghese, global market strategist at Carson Group, agreed, saying he expected a series of declines to begin in May.

“The big picture is that the Fed doesn’t have to worry about strong economic growth causing inflation to accelerate, because it’s not actually causing inflation,” he said.

— Alex Harring

Oil prices are on track for their best weekly pace in months as U.S. economic growth and Chinese stimulus raise hopes that demand will be even stronger this year.

West Texas Intermediate’s March contract last traded down 93 cents, or 1.2%, at $76.43 a barrel. The March Brent contract last traded at $81.64 a barrel, down 79 cents, or 0.96%.

But both indicators are up about 4% for the week, their best weekly pace since Oct. 13.

The United States reported strong economic growth of 3.3% in the fourth quarter, while China has lowered bank reserve requirements to boost growth.

— Spencer Kimball

Tesla shares have plunged more than 14% this week, the electric car maker’s worst weekly performance since October, when it fell 15.6%.

Shares fell more than 12% on Thursday alone after the company reported disappointing quarterly results after the bell Wednesday and warned of slowing growth.

Tesla stock has plunged more than 26% since early January and is headed for its worst monthly performance since December 2022. The stock price plunged 36.7% in the same month.