Asian markets were mixed as investors weighed economic data from the region

The Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer reported a drop in its second-quarter profit and revenue on Thursday.

Second-quarter revenue fell 10% to NT$480.84 billion (US$15.68 billion), while net income fell 23.3% from a year ago to NT$181.8 billion. This is TSMC’s first quarterly net income drop in 4 years.

TSMC said The business was affected by macroeconomic headwinds “which reduced final market demand, and led to continuous inventory adjustment for customers.”

Despite the declines, the results were better than market expectations for revenue of NT$478.83 billion and net income of NT$172.55 billion.

Read the full report here.

– Sheila Chiang

India’s smartphone market stabilized in the second quarter with 36.1 million units shipped, according to a report by Canalys.

That number is down 1% from last year, much better than the 20% drop in the first quarter. Shipments also decreased by 27% and 6% in the fourth and third quarters of 2022, respectively.

Samsung continued its dominance in the second quarter, taking about 18% of the market share with 6.6 million shipments, according to Canalys. Vivo closely followed with 6.4 million phones shipped, while Xiaomi ranked third with 5.4 million shipped.

Read the full story here.

Charmaine Jacob

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Australia remained unchanged at 3.5% In June, just below the 3.6% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in June said the employment-to-population ratio remained at 64.5%, with total unemployment falling from 1,600 to 505,500.

The employment rate is one of the main metrics that the Reserve Bank of Australia considers when it meets to discuss rate decisions.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Herald van der Linde, head of equity strategy for Asia Pacific at HSBC, said China wants to shift to new high-quality growth areas such as information technology to stimulate the economy.

“They don’t want to go back to the old growth model, which was real estate and infrastructure investments. They’re tired of that,” he said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”.

Instead, he added, “they want to transition to a new growth model” that focuses on cutting-edge technology, renewables, and electoral cars. But he said there was no clear direction from policymakers in Beijing on those specific details yet.

“We have a new economics team that came in February of this year. Presumably they’ve met, they’ve come up with plans and presumably in the next month or so, we’ll get more detail on exactly what they’re going to do,” Linde noted.

“And I think that’s what the market is waiting for. It gives us an idea of ​​where they’re really going.”

– Sumathi Bala

China left the one-year and five-year loan prime rates unchanged at 3.55% and 4.2%, respectively, days after it also left medium-term facility loan rates unchanged at 2.65%.

It also comes after the country saw second-quarter gross domestic product grow below expectations on Monday, posting a 6.3% year-on-year increase compared to the 7.3% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

China last cut the main loan rate in June, when it cut the one- and five-year loan prime rates by 10 basis points.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Goldman Sachs mentioned Chinese stocks that it says are likely to benefit from developments in generative AI — and two are on the bank’s damning list of Buy-rated names.

In two research notes dated July 16, Goldman provided an overview of the opportunities and risks created by generative AI and selected stocks that would likely benefit.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Lucy Handley

Japan posted a surprise trade surplus of 43.05 billion yen ($308.5 million) in June, the first time in 23 months that the world’s third-largest economy has registered a surplus.

This was a sharp reversal from the 1.38 trillion yen deficit recorded in May, and the 1.37 trillion yen deficit in June 2022.

Government data showed that the surplus was mainly due to lower imports. Imports fell 12.9% year-on-year in June, while exports posted a 1.5% rise over the same period last year.

– Lim Hwi Ji

Major technology trends such as artificial intelligence dominate headlines. But some niche plays like the Internet of Things (IoT) offer great potential despite low hype, according to technology investor Richard Claude.

Claude, a fund manager at Janus Henderson Investors, has named two IoT stocks that he sees as long-term winners. He manages the $3.2 billion Horizon Global Technology Leaders Fund, which is invested in both stocks.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Ganesh Rao

Shares of ASML have surged this year amid buzz around semiconductor and artificial intelligence companies — its Netherlands-listed shares have jumped about 32% in the year so far, while its US-listed shares are up about 40%.

But it faces a number of risks, including tensions between the United States and China.

Where will the stock go from here? CNBC Pro dug into Wall Street research to find out.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Wizen tan

Second-quarter earnings season has just begun, with 10% of S&P 500 companies reporting their results so far. Of the 50 companies reporting this, 64% beat revenue estimates, while 80% beat earnings-per-share expectations, according to Refinitiv data.

Based on the blended growth rate, earnings are expected to be down 8.2% year-over-year and revenue is expected to be down 0.8% year-over-year. The rate collects data from companies that have already reported data and those awaiting reporting.

– Samantha Sobin

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs missed expectations for the second quarter on Wednesday, despite the company trying to smooth out expectations beforehand.

Goldman Sachs reported an average of $3.08 per share and $10.9 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by Refinitiv expected $3.18 and $10.84 billion, respectively. Goldman Sachs fell 0.4 percent in pre-market trading.

– Brian Evans

Investors seem to be breathing a sigh of relief after the first wave of regional bank earnings.

The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) rose about 1% in early trade as investors and analysts turned on reports from Western Alliance, US Bancorp and others.

Shares of the Phoenix-based Western Alliance rose more than 2% despite earnings per share of $1.96 per share, two years below estimates, according to Refinitiv.

– Jesse Pound

Prices of corn, wheat and soybeans jumped on Wednesday. Concerns about forecasts of dry weather in the US Midwest and Russian airstrikes on the Black Sea port of Odessa after it withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative sent wheat prices higher.

Wheat futures are up 5.4% on Wednesday and nearly 6% for the week so far, on track for their best week since June 23.

Soybean futures were up 1.7% as of Wednesday morning, reaching a high of $437.4 a short ton.

Corn futures jumped 3.1% on Wednesday, to 551.5 cents a bushel. Corn prices are up 7.2% so far, on track for their best week since May 26.

– Hakyung Kim, Nick Wells