What to watch in Asia today
Events: Many Asia-Pacific cities celebrate Halloween, but Seoul will be cautiously marking a year since a surge of revellers resulted in 151 deaths and more than 80 injuries. Tokyo’s busy Shibuya district has imposed a policy of no alcohol in the streets, amid fears of a similar crush. Anime Tokyo Station opens in the Japanese capital’s Ikebukuro district. The Association of Japanese Animations and the Tokyo metropolitan government earlier this year signed an agreement to open a landmark facility devoted to the Japanese visual art.
Central banks: The Bank of Japan will conclude its two-day policy meeting and release fresh quarterly growth and inflation forecasts, while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand issues a financial stability report.
Economic indicators: Japan announces unemployment figures for September. China issues official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index data for October. South Korea releases industrial production and retail sales for September. The ANZ New Zealand business confidence index for October is available.
Corporate results: Foxconn Industrial Internet and Yum China are among companies reporting third-quarter data. Indian telco Bharti Airtel and Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo, Denso, Japan Tobacco, Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsui & Co announce second-quarter earnings.
SolarWinds sued by SEC after 2020 breach by Russian hackers
SolarWinds, the IT company breached by Russian hackers as part of a sprawling espionage campaign in 2020, has been sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC on Monday filed a complaint accusing the company and chief information security officer Timothy Brown of misleading investors by not disclosing “known risks” and not accurately representing its cyber security measures.
“We allege that, for years, SolarWinds and Brown ignored repeated red flags about SolarWinds’ cyber risks, which were well known throughout the company and led one of Brown’s subordinates to conclude: ‘We’re so far from being a security minded company,’” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division, said in a statement.
S&P upgrades Ford as cost cuts expected to offset new labour contract
S&P has upgraded Ford to investment-grade territory, citing the carmaker’s improving margins and expectations that its cost reduction programme would “more than offset higher labour-related costs”.
In a Monday update, the rating agency moved Ford up to triple-B minus from double-B plus.
Ford reached a tentative agreement last week with the United Auto Workers union that would increase member wages by 25 per cent over four years, following a historic 40-day strike against the traditional Big Three domestic car manufacturers.
S&P’s move comes after Fitch raised the company to investment grade status in September.
Moody’s lifted the company to the highest notch of junk territory in July.
Bank of Canada rate-setting group ‘has not started’ discussing when to cut
A top Bank of Canada official has said that the central bank’s monetary policy setting body has not yet discussed when to start cutting interest rates.
Once the bank is confident that inflation is coming down and remains at those levels, “we would start thinking about lowering interest rates, but we’re just not there yet,” senior deputy governor Carolyn Rogers told the country’s House of Commons on Monday.
The BoC’s “governing council has not started talking about when we’ll reduce interest rates”, she said.
The bank held its key interest rate at 5 per cent last week because officials want to give monetary policy time to cool the economy and relieve price pressures, BoC governor Tiff Macklem told lawmakers.
S&P 500 notches biggest gain in two months as Fed meeting looms
Wall Street stocks closed higher and oil prices dropped at the start of a week of closely watched economic data, with the upcoming Federal Reserve rate decision front and centre.
The benchmark S&P 500 closed 1.2 per cent higher for the gauge’s biggest one-day gain since late August. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also gained 1.2 per cent.
In government debt markets, Treasury yields also edged up — signalling a drop in prices. Brent crude oil fell roughly 3 per cent to remain below $90 a barrel.
Markets are currently pricing in the likelihood that the Fed will keep rates unchanged in a range of 5.25-5.5 per cent when it announces its policy decision on Wednesday.
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