
Indonesian Firms Now More Resilient to Rupiah Weakness, S&P Says
'We believe the Indonesian corporate sector is more resilient to depreciations in the rupiah than in previous depreciation cycles,' Xavier Jean, S&P senior director for corporate ratings in Singapore, said in an email interview last Friday. Financial leveraging has decreased from Covid highs and 'domestic funding is more prevalent in the economy' as firms take advantage of lower bank rates to refinance in the local currency, he added.

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San Francisco Chronicle
16 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Asian shares retreat, tracking tech losses on Wall Street
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares retreated on Wednesday, tracking a decline on Wall Street led by technology shares including Nvidia and other stars that have been riding the mania surrounding artificial-intelligence. Benchmarks fell in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, pulled lower by selling of computer chip makers. Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 1.7% to 42,787.28. Japan reported its exports fell slightly more than expected in July, pressured by higher tariffs on goods shipped to the U.S. Computer-chip equipment makers Advantest plunged 6.6% and Disco Corp. dropped 4.7%. Chip maker Tokyo Electron lost 1.9%. and Lasertec Corp. lost 1.8%. The Taiex in Taiwan fell 2.4% after chip maker TSMC dropped 3.8%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.6% to 24,980.20 while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 3,725.22 after China's central bank opted to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged, as markets had expected. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2% to 8,917.60. South Korea's Kospi dropped 1.4% to 3,096.09, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemned South Korean-U.S. military drills that began this week, and vowed a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces to counter rivals, according to North Korean state media. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 6,411.37, for a third straight loss. It remains near its all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1% to 44,922.27, and the Nasdaq composite slumped 1.5% to 21,314.95. The heaviest weight on the market was Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the move into AI. It sank 3.5%. Another AI darling, Palantir Technologies, dropped 9.4% for the largest loss in the S&P 500. It's seen bets build up sharply that its stock price will drop, according to S3 Partners. Only Meta Platforms has seen a bigger increase this year in what's called 'short interest,' where traders essentially bet a stock's price will fall. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, sank 2.1%. Criticism has been rising that stock prices across Wall Street have shot too high, too fast since hitting a bottom in April and have become too expensive. Palantir's stock came into Tuesday with a tremendous gain of 130% for the year so far. The priciness of AI-related shares and potential for further trade restrictions in the strategically important chip industry prompted investors to sell. Home Depot's gain of 3.2% was the biggest reason the Dow did better than other indexes. The retailer reported results for the latest quarter that were a bit short of what analysts expected, but it delivered growth in revenue and stood by its prior forecasts for revenue and profit over the full year. The week's headliner for Wall Street is likely arriving on Friday. That's when the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, will give a highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The setting has been home to big policy announcements from the Fed in the past, and the hope on Wall Street is that Powell may hint that cuts to interest rates are coming soon. The Fed has kept its main interest rate steady this year, primarily because of the fear of the possibility that President Donald Trump's tariffs could push inflation higher. But a surprisingly weak report on job growth across the country may be superseding that. Traders on Wall Street widely expect the Fed to cut interest rates at its next meeting in September in order to give the economy a boost. Treasury yields have come down notably in the bond market as a result, and they eased on Tuesday. Strategists at Bank of America warn that Powell may not sound as inclined to cut interest rates as the market is expecting. He could remain non-committal and discuss the possibility of a worst-case scenario for the economy called 'stagflation.' The Fed has no good tool to fix that situation, where the economy stagnates at the same time as inflation remains high. In other dealings early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude added 12 cents to $61.89 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 11 cents to $65.90 a barrel.


Business Insider
33 minutes ago
- Business Insider
U.S. Stock Futures Down as Investors Await Fed Minutes and Retail Earnings
U.S. stock futures were down Tuesday night as investors prepared for earnings reports from major retailers and the release of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting minutes. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 (NDX), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), and the S&P 500 Index (SPX) were down 0.05%, 0.01%, and 0.03%, respectively, at 6:38 p.m. EDT on August 19. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. This follows a mixed performance in Tuesday's regular trading session. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite witnessed a 'risk-off' day, falling 0.6% and 1.5%, respectively. In contrast, the Dow managed a slight gain, boosted by a post-earnings rally in Home Depot (HD) shares. Looking ahead, investors will also be closely monitoring remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday for further clues on the direction of interest rates. Before the Fed minutes are released, traders will also be focused on a series of pre-market earnings reports from retail giants, including Lowe's (LOW), Target (TGT), and TJX Cos (TJX).


CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
Dollar grinds higher with Fed in focus in run-up to Jackson Hole
The dollar got off on the front foot on Wednesday following two days of gains as traders awaited the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole annual symposium later this week for clues on the path for monetary policy. A speech on Friday by Fed Chair Jerome Powell is the main focus, with the market watching for any push back against market pricing of a rate reduction next month. Traders currently place 84% odds on a cut next month, and expect around 54 basis points of reductions by year-end. The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major counterparts, edged up to 98.393 early on Wednesday, the highest since August 12. It had gained about 0.4% in the first two days of this week. "Given the relatively high bar for Powell to meet, there's a bit of risk being baked into the markets that he leans to the hawkish side and the proverbial rug gets pulled from beneath investors," said Kyle Rodda, an analyst at In Asian hours, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand sets policy later in the day, with a large majority of economists predicting a quarter-point cut to the cash rate. The New Zealand dollar drooped close to Tuesday's nearly two-week low, last changing hands at $0.5895. "There's little reason for RBNZ to keep rates on hold," said Rodda. "Inflation is within its target band, and although it is no longer mandated to target the labor market, the unemployment rate is at a post-Covid high." For the Fed, traders ramped up bets for a cut on September 17 after a surprisingly weak payrolls report at the start of this month, and were further encouraged after consumer price data showed limited upward pressure from tariffs. However, a hotter-than-expected producer price reading last week complicated the policy picture. Powell has said he is reluctant to cut rates due to expected tariff-driven price pressures this summer. The Fed will release minutes from its July 29-30 meeting later on Wednesday, when the central bank held rates steady, although they may offer limited insight as the meeting came before the weak jobs numbers. The dollar advanced 0.1% to 147.78 yen. The euro eased 0.1% to $1.1633, the weakest since August 14. Sterling slipped 0.1% to $1.3476, the lowest since August 12. Australia's dollar edged down to $0.64485, a level last seen on August 1.