Thursday

Profits at China’s industrial firms grew 19.6% on-year to 589.5 billion yuan ($85.58 billion), the statistics bureau said on Thursday, following an 11.5% increase seen in June, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Thursday.

However, some signs of weakness have emerged in July, with industrial output growing slower than expected. Some analysts said flood and torrential rain have dampened activity and demand for electricity.

Factories’ profits also face risks from increasingly tense U.S.-China relationship ahead of the U.S. presidential elections in November, which could impact overseas orders and confidence from investors and consumers.

For January-July, industrial firms’ profits fell 8.1% on an annual basis to 3.1 trillion yuan, improving from a 12.8% slump in the first six months.

Despite the acceleration in profits in July, accumulated profit declines in the mining and raw materials industries remain large, company cash flow pressures are high, and a “complex and severe” environment at home and abroad means that future profit growth has a degree of uncertainty, said Zhu.

Profit growth was mainly driven by higher margins, with reveune growth slowing modestly from June, said analysts from Goldman Sachs in a note.

Earnings at China’s state-owned industrial firms were down 23.5% on an annual basis for the first seven months of the year, versus a 28.5% decline in the first half of the year, the statistics bureau data showed.

The GOP is mulling a roughly $500 billion proposal that addresses only areas of bipartisan support: expanded unemployment insurance, a new authorization of small business loans, and money for schools and Covid-19 testing, treatment and vaccines. The plan would not include another direct payment to Americans.

Meadows said he expects Pelosi to hold out until the end of September, when Congress faces a deadline to avoid a government shutdown, to try to get her desired relief provisions in a bill.

South Korea's central bank on Thursday again sharply lowered its growth outlook for the economy this year and froze its policy rate at a record low as uncertainties stemming from spiking virus cases heightened.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) again trimmed its growth outlook for Asia's fourth-largest economy for the year, expecting a 1.3 percent contraction amid the deepening virus fallout.

The latest growth projection marked a sharp cut from the central bank's estimate in May of a 0.2 percent contraction.

"The recovery of domestic economic growth is likely to be slower than previously forecast, largely due to the domestic resurgence of COVID-19," the BOK said in a statement.

As widely expected, the BOK's monetary policy board kept steady the benchmark seven-day repo rate at 0.5 percent for the second straight occasion.

During the June quarter, investment declined 5.9% to A$26.1 billion ($18.9 billion) on top of a downwardly revised 2.1% fall in the March quarter, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed on Thursday.

However, the outcome was far better than market forecasts for an 8.4% slump.

And, surprisingly, Australian firms seemed confident about the future, with the latest estimate for spending plans for 2020/21 at A$98.6 billion, 8.9% higher than the previous estimate.

Following Thursday’s better-than-expected report Thieliant has upgraded his GDP forecast to 4.5% contraction for the June quarter from an earlier prediction of a 6.5% slump.

“The upshot is that the outlook for capital spending isn’t as gloomy as one would expect in the current environment,” he noted.