Japan CPI, Bank of Japan

Amazon Web Services has announced a 2.26 trillion yen ($15.24 billion) investment in Japan by 2027 to meet growing customer demand for cloud services in the country.

The investment will be made into existing cloud infrastructure in Tokyo and Osaka, Tadao Nagasaki, president of AWS Japan said in a Linkedin post.

Nagasaki wrote that the investment could benefit “multiple verticals” that contribute to Japanese industries, both in the public and government sector.

“It will help more Japanese organizations to access and adopt new, emerging and transformational digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning,” he added.

— Lim Hui Jie

Morgan Stanley says it does not see the Bank of Japan exiting its negative interest rate regime at the central bank’s policy meeting next week.

“As for the January monetary policy meeting, I think that removal [of negative interest rates] is currently off the table because of the earthquake,” Morgan Stanley’s chief Japan economist, Takeshi Yamaguchi told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”

“This year’s wage negotiations will be pretty strong. Last year, the headline increase was around 3.6% 3.7% but [this year] we are expecting close to 4%, in terms of the headline wage increase,” Yamaguchi said, adding he believes that will be key for the BOJ to end its negative interest rate policy.

The BOJ is set to release its monetary policy decision on Tuesday, with markets widely expecting the central bank to stick with its current stance.

Data on Friday also showed Japan’s headline inflation rate fell to 2.6% in December, hitting its lowest level since June 2022. It also cooled from 2.8% in November.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Japan’s inflation is increasingly being driven by wages instead of input costs, which should prove favorable for the country’s stocks and its economy, according to Schroders.

Masaki Taketsume, fund manager at Schroders told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” that the country’s headline inflation rate falling to 2.6% in December compared with 2.8% in November was a result of lower input costs.

However, the spring wage negotiations, or “shunto,” in March are expected to bring “a positive outcome” in terms of wage increases, he said, which will lead to a modest increase in inflation to about 3% in the second half of the year.

“[This will be] led by wage growth, which is what the Bank of Japan is looking for,” Taketsume said.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japan’s headline inflation rate fell to 2.6% in December, down from 2.8% in November and hitting its lowest level since June 2022.

Japan’s core inflation rate — which strips out prices of fresh food — also fell to 2.3% from November’s figure of 2.5%, in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters.

The so called “core-core” inflation rate, which strips out prices of fresh food and energy and is closely watched by the Bank of Japan, came in at 3.7%, slightly lower than the 3.8% seen in November.

— Lim Hui Jie

Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia are among several S&P 500 names to reach 52-week highs on Thursday. AMD traded at all-time high levels not seen since the company’s IPO in September 1972, while Nvidia shares were at levels not seen since January 1999. Other tech and software companies, industrial names and a couple hotel chains also reached fresh heights.

Here are some of the names that reached all-time highs:

Stocks in the broad market index that reached new 52-week lows include Devon Energy, Exxon Mobil and Humana.

— Pia Singh, Christopher Hayes

Several sectors – and stocks – in Asia Pacific look “particularly attractive right now,” according to AllianceBernstein.

These stocks are “highly ranked on a quantitative basis and our companies where our Bernstein analysts have a strong positive view,” the Wall Street Bank’s analysts wrote as it named its Asian “top picks for the next six months.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

Oil prices rose on Thursday on solid demand growth forecasts for 2024 and a large U.S. crude inventory withdrawal.

The West Texas Intermediate futures contract rose $1.52. or 2.09%, to settle a $74.08 a barrel. The Brent futures contract for March rose $1.22, or 1.57%, to settle at $79.10 a barrel.

The International Energy Agency forecast that crude demand would rise by 1.2 million barrels per day in 2024, while OPEC put the figure at 1.8 million barrels per day.

The U.S. also drew 2.5 million barrels from its crude inventories for the week ending Jan. 12, which was larger than expected.

— Spencer Kimball

Apple shares were up more than 1% in the premarket after the tech giant received an upgrade from Bank of America. The bank also said it sees more than 20% upside going forward.

“We upgrade Apple to Buy from Neutral, given: 1) stronger multi-year iPhone upgrade cycle driven by need for the latest hardware to enable Generative AI features to be introduced in 2024/2025 (large part of installed base still on iPhone 11), 2) higher growth in Services as Apple better monetizes its installed base,” BofA said.

Initial jobless claims fell sharply last week in a surprise move indicating ongoing tightness in the labor market.

First-time filings for unemployment insurance totaled 187,000 for the week ended Jan. 13, a decline of 16,000 from the previous period and below the Dow Jones estimate for 208,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Continuing claims, which run a week behind, decreased to 1.806 million, a decline of 26,000 and below the FactSet estimate for 1.83 million.

—Jeff Cox