China economic data, Japan GDP miss expectations

Tech stocks were among the worst hit in the first half of the year as investors fled to safety amid a broad market-sell off. But investor interest in the sector appears to be picking up once more, begging the question — is it time to jump back into the sector?

Top tech investor and portfolio manager Paul Meeks shares his strategy for trading the sector, what he’s watching in the market and his best ideas in the space.

Find out more on CNBC Pro.

— Zavier Ong

Japan’s gross domestic product for the April-June quarter missed expectations in part because of high prices, according to Sayuri Shirai, a professor at Keio University.

Consumption growth was not strong despite the easing of Covid restrictions because gasoline, utilities and food prices are “very expensive,” she told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

People are going to restaurants and amusement parks, but high prices are discouraging spending, she said.

Capital expenditure, on the other hand, was higher than what markets expected, but Shirai said that is not surprising.

“I think that was kind of expected because the January-March number was negative, and we know the large companies, they need to spend a lot of money for capex because of AI, digitization,” she said.

— Abigail Ng

China’s factory and consumer data for July came in below estimates, according to official data.

Industrial production grew by 3.8%, below the expected 4.6% in a Reuters poll and slightly lower than the 3.9% figure reported in June.

Retail sales increased 2.7% in July compared with the same period in 2021, below the 5% growth forecast.

— Abigail Ng, Evelyn Cheng

The People’s Bank of China lowered its one-year medium-term lending facility on 400 billion yuan ($59.3 billion) of loans to some financial institutions by 10 basis points to 2.75%, according to an announcement posted on the central bank’s website.

According to Reuters, all 32 respondents in a poll last week forecast that the medium-term lending facility rate would be kept steady.

The PBOC also cut its seven-day reverse repo rate by 10 basis points to 2%.

— Abigail Ng

Preliminary estimates showed Japan’s annualized gross domestic product grew 2.2% in the April-to-June quarter compared with the previous quarter.

That’s lower than the expected 2.5% increase based on forecasts in a Reuters poll.

— Abigail Ng