2024 in review: A challenging year for New Zealand’s Chinese communityMore than 20 FREE and cheap things to do in Vancouver this winter
This is CNBC's live blog covering Asia-Pacific markets. Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed Monday as traders assessed revised economic growth data from Japan and awaited China's November inflation data. > Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.15%, while the Topix gained 0.2%. Japan's third-quarter GDP was revised to 0.3% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, up from 0.2% and above estimates from a Reuters poll that predicted no change. South Korea's Kospi was down 1.3%, while the Kosdaq dropped 2.8% amid the ongoing political turmoil in the country. Over the weekend, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol survived an impeachment vote in parliament, but the leader of his party said the president would eventually resign. Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were at 19,821 lower than the HSI's last close of 19,865.85. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.3%. In the U.S. on Friday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose to fresh records after November jobs data came in slightly better than expected , but not so hot as to deter the Federal Reserve from cutting rates again later this month. The broad market S&P 500 climbed 0.25% to 6,090.27. Tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.81% to 19,859.77, bolstered by gains in Tesla , Meta Platforms and Amazon . The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 123.19 points, or 0.28%, to close at 44,642.52. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq went on to their third straight positive week as well, rising 0.96% and 3.34%, respectively. The Dow slipped 0.6% during the period. — CNBC's Sean Conlon, Lisa Kailai Han and Pia Singh contributed to this report. CNBC Pro: Five global stocks the pros are buying before the start of 2025 2024 has seen some massive stock rallies, as investor interest in themes such as AI has shown little sign of waning. As the year-end nears, CNBC Pro asked three fund managers what global stocks they are buying in the lead-up to 2025, as they attempt to get ahead of the curve. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Amala Balakrishner S&P 500 to hit 6,700 by year-end 2025, says HSBC The S&P 500 is set for more gains in 2025, according to HSBC. The firm said it expects the broad market index to hit 6,700 by the end of next year, which implies more than 10% upside from Thursday's close. The index has already risen more than 27% this year. "While this year's equity rally was a mix of both earnings growth and a valuation re-rating (c50/50), we expect next year's equity returns to be focused on earnings growth as valuations are more stretched," analyst Nicole Inui told clients in a Friday note. "Overall, we expect earnings to grow by 9% incorporating a slower but still resilient US economy and some margin expansion." Inui also said she expects the U.S. economy to slow over the course of the next year but remain resilient as inflation eases. That would enable the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by another 125 basis points, she forecast. — Sean Conlon UBS says 'a constructive stance is warranted on global equities' next year Despite the threat of tariffs next year, investors should stay bullish on stocks in 2025, according to UBS. "Heading into 2025, we think a constructive stance is warranted on global equities, and on U.S. stocks in particular," the bank wrote in a Friday report. "We note that historically U.S. equities tend to rally into presidential elections and after, with the average gain in the 150 trading days following an election averaging near 5% in data going back to 1928 for the S&P 500." UBS added that the U.S. sectors it views as most attractive are the technology, utilities and financial sectors. — Lisa Kailai Han November jobs report beats expectations The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in November, marking a sharp rebound from the previous month. Economist polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 214,000 jobs for the month. Jobs growth for October was revised to 36,000 from 12,000. The unemployment rate came in at 4.2% for November, as was expected. — Fred Imbert
ROME (AP) — Robert Lewandowski joined Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the only players in Champions League history with 100 or more goals. But Erling Haaland is on a faster pace than anyone by boosting his total to 46 goals at age 24 on Tuesday. Still, Haaland's brace wasn't enough for Manchester City in a 3-3 draw with Feyenoord that extended the Premier League champion's winless streak to six matches. Lewandowski’s early penalty kick started Barcelona off to a 3-0 win over previously unbeaten Brest to move into second place in the new single-league format. The Poland striker added goal No. 101 in second-half stoppage time. Ronaldo leads the all-time scoring list with 140 goals and Messi is next with 129. But neither Ronaldo nor Messi play in the Champions League anymore following moves to Saudi Arabia and the United States, respectively. “It’s a nice number,” Lewandowski said. “In the past I didn’t think I could score more than 100 goals in the Champions League. I’m in good company alongside Cristiano and Messi.” The 36-year-old Lewandowski required 125 matches to reach the century mark, two more than Messi (123) and 12 fewer than Ronaldo (137). Barcelona also got a second-half score from Dani Olmo. The top eight finishers in the standings advance directly to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth to 24th go into a knockout playoffs round in February, while the bottom 12 teams are eliminated. Haaland converted a first-half penalty to eclipse Messi as the youngest player to reach 45 goals then scored City's third after the break to raise his total to 46 goals in 44 games. Ilkay Gundogan had City's second. But then Feyenoord struck back with goals from Anis Hadj Moussa, Santiago Gimenez and David Hancko. Inter Milan beat Leipzig 1-0 with an own goal to move atop the standings with 13 points, one more than Barcelona and Liverpool, which faces Real Madrid on Wednesday. The Serie A champion is the only club that hasn't conceded a goal. Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 — the same score from the 2020 final between the two teams. PSG ended with 10 men and remained in the elimination zone. The French powerhouse has struggled in Europe after Kylian Mbappe’s move to Real Madrid. Story continues below video Kim Min-jae’s first-half header was enough for Bayern, especially after Ousmane Dembelé was sent off in the 56th with his second yellow. Atalanta moved within two points of the lead with a 6-1 win at Young Boys. Charles De Ketelaere scored two and assisted on three other goals for Atalanta. Also, Arsenal kept red-hot striker Viktor Gyokeres quiet in a 5-1 win over Sporting Lisbon; and Germany star Florian Wirtz scored two goals and was involved in two more as Bayer Leverkusen boosted its chances of finishing in the top eight with a 5-0 rout of Salzburg. AC Milan followed up its win at Real Madrid with a 3-2 victory at last-place Slovan Bratislava in an early match. Christian Pulisic put the seven-time champion ahead midway through the first half by finishing off a counterattack. Then Rafael Leao restored the Rossoneri’s advantage after Tigran Barseghyan had equalized for Bratislava and Tammy Abraham quickly added another. Nino Marcelli scored with a long-range strike in the 88th for Bratislava, which ended with 10 men. Bratislava has lost all five of its matches. Argentina World Cup winner Julian Alvarez scored twice and Atletico Madrid routed Sparta Prague 6-0 in the other early game. Alvarez scored with a free kick 15 minutes in and Marcos Llorente added a long-range strike before the break. Alvarez finished off a counterattack early in the second half after being set up by substitute Antoine Griezmann, who then marked his 100th Champions League game by getting on the scoresheet himself. Angel Correa added a late brace for Atletico, which earned its biggest away win in Europe. Atletico beat Paris Saint-Germain in the previous round and extended its winning streak across all competitions to six matches. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerLewandowski joins Ronaldo and Messi in Champions League 100-goal club. Haaland nets 2 but City draws
I don't like to look back on decisions I made in the past and think about how different things might be now if I had taken another path. For instance, I see little point in wondering how my life would have changed if I had attended a different university or not become a journalist. The same applies to economic policies. However, the timing of economic policy, as opposed to its content, is a different matter. In economic policies, timing is as important as, if not more important than, the content. We often see cases where well-designed policy measures fail to produce the desired effects, or even worsen the situation, because they are implemented too late or too early. Conversely, even poorly prepared measures can achieve better-than-expected results when implemented at the right time. Unfortunately, the Bank of Korea’s recent policy actions appear to fall into the former category. In October, the central bank lowered its policy interest rate for the first time in nearly four and a half years. This decision was based on inflation stabilizing, household debt growth slowing due to tightened government macroprudential policies, and risks easing in the foreign exchange market. The central bank also noted that, while the local economy was expected to continue its trend of moderate growth, uncertainties surrounding the growth outlook had heightened due to the delayed recovery in domestic demand. However, the effect of the rate cut on financial and economic conditions was very limited. Of course, market players agreed that the rate cut was better than nothing in the sense that policymakers were finally paying attention to weakening economic conditions. But the decision came too late to achieve its typical effect of encouraging people to invest more in riskier assets, such as equities, and spurring businesses to continue spending — even by increasing borrowing. In fact, most conventional indicators had pointed to the need for a rate cut much earlier in the year. Inflation was declining and poised to fall below the central bank’s 2 percent target, economic growth showed signs of missing expectations, and employment figures were disappointing. While acknowledging that the weakening macroeconomic conditions warranted a policy shift, the central bank refused to lower the interest rate earlier, citing concerns about rising real estate prices in Seoul and the surrounding region, high household debt levels and a volatile dollar-won exchange rate. However, these justifications were far from economically sound. First, real estate prices were not rising rapidly on a national level. Apartment prices were indeed climbing in the Seoul metropolitan area, but housing prices nationwide were largely flat -- or even declining when adjusted for inflation. Its concern over high household debt levels also appeared unfounded. While South Korea’s household debt is high by international standards and poses long-term risks to the financial system, it is not solely the central bank’s responsibility to address this issue. The underlying causes of high household debt include structural factors such as the country’s unique house rental system, underdeveloped banking practices and relatively limited household income sources beyond wages due to the underdeveloped local capital market. The central bank’s concerns about the volatile dollar-won exchange rate were also questionable. While some argue that lower interest rates could trigger capital outflows and weaken the local currency’s value, research shows that interest rates are just one of many factors influencing exchange rates. Eventually, the Bank of Korea decided to cut the policy rate at its October meeting. Yet this significant decision failed to alleviate public concerns or boost the economy as expected. As conditions deteriorated further, the central bank implemented another rate cut in November. It is highly unusual for the central bank to lower interest rates at two consecutive policy meetings in the absence of a crisis, such as the US subprime mortgage crisis or the COVID-19 pandemic. This move was clearly intended to signal to investors and other economic actors that policymakers were committed to supporting the economy. However, the financial markets reacted in an entirely unexpected way. Instead of increasing their holdings of stocks and other won-denominated assets, investors sold them off. Rather than conveying confidence that policymakers could turn the situation around, the successive rate cuts sent the opposite message -- that the economy might be in far worse condition than previously thought. Regrettably, the Bank of Korea’s monetary policy over the past two months will likely be remembered as a textbook example of well-intentioned policy implemented at the wrong time, forcing the entire economy to bear unnecessary costs. To make matters worse, the economy is now falling deeper into chaos due to political instability sparked by the president’s sudden failed attempt to impose martial law. The Bank of Korea may face no choice but to implement a third consecutive rate cut at its next policy meeting if the situation continues to hurt economic sentiment. It would definitely be a scenario the Bank of Korea could not have imagined when it continued to ignore signals from traditional macroeconomic indicators suggesting it was time to take action. The inconvenient truth is that someone will have to bear the cost. Yoo Choon-sik Yoo Choon-sik worked for nearly 30 years at Reuters, including as the chief Korea economics correspondent, and briefly worked as a business strategy consultant. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.(Azacitidine + cedazuridine) is under clinical development by Taiho Oncology and currently in Phase III for Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML). According to GlobalData, Phase III drugs for Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML) have a 57% phase transition success rate (PTSR) indication benchmark for progressing into Pre-Registration. GlobalData tracks drug-specific phase transition and likelihood of approval scores, in addition to indication benchmarks based off 18 years of historical drug development data. Attributes of the drug, company and its clinical trials play a fundamental role in drug-specific PTSR and likelihood of approval. (Azacitidine + cedazuridine) overview ASTX-030, a fixed dose combination of azacitidine and cedazuridine is under development for the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts, refractory anemia with excess blasts, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It is administered by oral route. It acts by targeting DNA (cytosine 5) methyltransferase 1 and cytosine deaminase (CDA). The drug candidate is being developed based on Pyramid technology. Taiho Oncology overview Taiho Oncology, a subsidiary of Taiho Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is a provider of cancer treatments and solutions. The company manufactures and markets cancer anti-metabolites as well as targeted small molecule inhibitors. Its products portfolio includes oral drugs for the treatment of gastric cancer, colorectal cancer and a variety of solid tumours. Taiho Oncology’s pipeline products includes anti metabolic agents and selectively targeted agents. The company’s LONSURF is an anti-cancer drug for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Taiho Oncology is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, the US. For a complete picture of (Azacitidine + cedazuridine)’s drug-specific PTSR and LoA scores, This content was updated on 12 April 2024 From Blending expert knowledge with cutting-edge technology, GlobalData’s unrivalled proprietary data will enable you to decode what’s happening in your market. You can make better informed decisions and gain a future-proof advantage over your competitors. , the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article. GlobalData’s Likelihood of Approval analytics tool dynamically assesses and predicts how likely a drug will move to the next stage in clinical development (PTSR), as well as how likely the drug will be approved (LoA). This is based on a combination of machine learning and a proprietary algorithm to process data points from various databases found on GlobalData’s .
Big Ten Signing Day: Late flips push Oregon ahead of Ohio State and Michigan in rankingsNottingham's tram network is said to be in a "much stronger position" heading into the new year as it reports an increase in passenger journeys of over a million. The city's tram operator is still reporting a loss of £26 million, though the firm says this is "in line with expectations" and is a reduction of more than 50% from the loss reported last year. A continued crackdown on people avoiding fares is among the reasons being set out for the improved picture, which is being reported in the annual accounts for Tramlink Nottingham Limited. The accounts, published on December 20, cover the financial year that ended on March 31, 2024. Tim Hesketh, the chief exec of Tramlink, said: "We're always looking at ways we can improve the service we offer our customers and this year saw us double down on those efforts. We invested in new technology, made key updates to our ticket systems and strengthened our ties with the local police force, which all in turn ensures we can provide our customers with the very best service. Do you support plans to extend Nottingham's tram network? Let us know here "Though the country remains in a challenging economic climate, we have remained committed to ensuring value for money for the many tram users who use the network each day. As such, this year, we've worked hard to ensure that any cost increases incurred due to rising inflation and energy costs are kept to a minimum. That's a commitment that will remain into 2025 too". Nottingham's tram network, which first began operating in 2004, is run through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract held by Tramlink. The PFI deal has seen private investors putting significant sums into the tram project, alongside investment from the Government and Nottingham City Council . Tramlink holds the contract for Nottingham's tram network until 2034 and Nottingham Trams Limited runs the network on behalf of Tramlink under the NET brand. Responsibility for trams after Tramlink's contract ends is likely to end up in the hands of the East Midlands Combined County Authority. A Nottingham City Council report from 2011 estimated its annual total costs in regards to the tram network would be around £70 million for the majority of the PFI contract. Nottingham City Council now says those figures are out of date, but says it cannot share the exact current payments due to confidentiality clauses in the tram contract. As well as the new figures on overall losses, Tramlink says the number of passenger journeys made throughout the last financial year was 15.5 million, an increase on the 14.4 million recorded the year before. The biggest reason for the significant reduction in losses recorded is the fact that Tramlink did not record an impairment charge last year. An impairment charge is recorded when the value of a company's assets is considered to have fallen. In Tramlink's case, that judgement was primarily made in the 2022/23 financial year because passenger numbers were still less than pre-pandemic levels. It meant an impairment charge of £26.7 million was recorded in the financial year before last. That impairment charge coincided with a deal being announced, which avoided Tramlink "running out of cash". The deal means Tramlink's loans will have to be repaid by 2033 rather than 2030 and that the cash reserves the company has to hold have been reduced from double-figure millions to single-figure millions. Mr Hesketh said: " We were confident that last year's financial restructuring project would give our network the security we needed to concentrate on making investments towards improvements to our service, and our most recent financial figures are an indicator of its success. "After a challenging few years, it's promising to see that we're now in a much stronger position, and we'd like to thank the city council and Department of Transport for all their support". Mr Hesketh has previously acknowledged that some of the original private investors in Nottingham's tram project, who invested with a promise of returns, will not be getting their money back. The tram boss says that the priority is to repay priority lenders like banks and Nottingham City Council. Yet for those junior lenders who might not end up getting their money back, Mr Hesketh claims they still value their contribution as it provides a boost to their portfolio of investments. On the latest results, the Tramlink chief exec added: "We would also like to thank our customers for their continued support over the last year, during which we delivered a 7.4% increase in passenger kilometres travelled, as well as increased tram reliability. We look forward to building on this in 2025".
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