Hong Kong shares rose about 3% after reports said the city was considering easing a Covid law

Chinese health authorities announced Guidelines for treating covid patients at home On Thursday, the day after the policy was formalized to allow most The infected patients should be quarantined at homeAs part of the country’s mitigation measures.

The notice on the National Health Commission website said patients should isolate in a separate room if possible, and take antigen tests themselves.

Noting that patients with severe symptoms should go to hospital, the announcement included instructions for patients with milder symptoms to monitor their health at home and take medication as needed.

The committee included a list of medicines used to treat symptoms of Covid.

Health authorities are scheduled to hold a press briefing at 3 p.m. local time.

– Abigail Ng, Evelyn Cheng

Fitch Ratings expects house prices in Australia to see a significant decline of 7% to 10% next year, it said in its latest forecast. Report.

The agency also predicts that housing prices in China will decline by 1% to 3% next year.

“We expect rates to fall further in 2023 before bottoming out, but mortgage performance will deteriorate only slightly in the face of economic headwinds,” Fitch Ratings’ Tracey Wan said in the report.

However, the report said that house prices in Japan could buck the trend to rise by 2% to 4% in 2023. Prices in Australia are expected to rise in 2024.

– Jihe Lee

The Japanese economy experienced a quarterly annualized contraction of 0.8% in the third quarter, with Revised gross domestic product A reading that beat expectations in a Reuters poll for a contraction of 1.1%.

The government’s first preliminary estimate released in November was a 1.2% decline.

The country also posted a deficit of 64.1 billion yen ($469.3 million) in the unadjusted current account balance, Government data show up. The reading was in sharp contrast to an estimate of a surplus of 623.4 billion yen in a separate Reuters poll.

– Jihe Lee

Australia’s trade surplus for the month of October was A$12.2 billion ($8.19 billion), slightly larger than expected, Official data showed.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected it to be A$12.1 billion, and expect a larger decline than reported – after the economy ran a trade surplus of A$12.4 billion.

Exports decreased by 0.9% and imports by 0.7%.

– Abigail Ng

Stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 down 0.19% to close at 3,933.92.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat, or 1.58 points higher, to end the session at 33,597.92. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.51%, closing at 10,958.55.

– Samantha Sobin

A shortage of semiconductors during the electric car sales boom could help boost profits for a handful of chipmakers, according to Bank of America.

A Wall Street bank predicted that two chip stocks could see their share prices rise by more than 75% on the back of the trend.

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– Ganesh Rao

Don’t be surprised if economic data released next week starts to pick up through the end of the year and possibly 2023, according to Andrew Slimon, senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

The main data release period on Friday begins with the Producer Price Index, followed by the Consumer Price Index for November and then another possible rate hike from the Federal Reserve next week.

“The last time these were released, they all led to a rebound in the stock market because we have better inflation indicators,” he said.

Like many investors, Slimmon expects a downturn ahead, given the inverted yield curve, but he doesn’t expect the “major earnings collapse” or deflation, as many people expect in the first quarter.

This is due in part to the fact that many consumers have built up their savings in recent years due to the approaching recent recession.

“The message this year is that the economy has proven to be much more resilient than many people expect, and I don’t think next quarter will be the end of that,” he said.

– Samantha Sobin

It’s been a tumultuous year for tech companies, as investors flee growth stocks in the face of rising interest rates and other headwinds.

apple It held up better amid the technological carnage, though there were some headwinds.

Two investors faced off on CNBC’street signs asiaon Wednesday to make an argument for and against buying the stock.

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– Wizen tan