Market tumbles ahead of Fed meeting

PSEi January 30, 2023

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STOCKS fell Monday as traders struggled to maintain momentum from last week’s rally ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting this week that will likely set the pace of interest rate hikes in most markets.

The PSE index, the 30-company benchmark, lost 81 points, or 1.15 percent, to close at 6,970.97 as five of the six subsectors declined, with mining and oil showing the biggest loss.

The broader all-share index also went

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down by 37 points, or 1.02 percent, to settle at 3,659.96, on a value turnover of P8.30 billion. Losers outnumbered gainers, 147 to 57, while 38 issues were unchanged.

Two of the 10 most active stocks ended in the green, led by BDO Unibank Inc. which gained 0.82 percent to P123.00 and SM Prime Holdings Inc. which rose 0.27 percent to P37.70.

Most Asian markets retreated, but Shanghai advanced as mainland Chinese markets reopened after a weeklong Lunar New Year break.

Even a strong performance on Wall Street was not enough to lift sentiment across the region, after data showed the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of in-

Manila Standard

TOKYO—Japan’s Toyota was the world’s top-selling automaker in 2022, retaining its lead over German rival Volkswagen for the third year, company data showed Monday.

Despite the chip shortage and Covid-related supply chain disruption, Toyota and its subsidiaries sold nearly 10.5 million vehicles last year, around the same as in 2021.

In comparison, Volkswagen Group— which held the top spot until 2020 when it was overtaken by Toyota—sold 8.3 million units last year, an annual drop of seven percent.

“Despite the impact of production constraints caused by the spread of Covid-19, increased demand for semiconductors, and other factors, global sales were at the same level year-on-year as a result of solid demand centered around Asia,” the Japanese car giant said.

In 2022, Toyota sold 2.7 million electrified vehicles, around five percent more than the previous year. The vast majority of those—2.6 million—were hybrid models.

Toyota pioneered hybrid cars, but some critics say the company has been slow to make the shift to battery-powered engines even as demand soars for low-emission automobiles.

A year ago, Toyota hiked its targets for the sector and announced it would roll out 30 battery-powered electric models by the end of the decade.

Mio Kato, an analyst at Lightstream Research who publishes on Smartkarma, told AFP that Toyota was likely to keep its topselling crown in the near term.

“In terms of the actual volumes, it will still be difficult for Volkswagen or General Motors to surpass Toyota easily because both are under more pressure in China with their internal combustion engine business,” he said.

Electric-only carmakers like China’s BYD will one day pose “a genuine threat” to Toyota, he said, because they have strong battery technology and “more experience and better branding” with EVs. AFP

Qatar joins Lebanon-led consortium to explore for gas near Israel waters

BEIRUT—Lebanon announced Sunday that Qatar had entered a consortium to explore for offshore gas in waters near Israel, following a historic border deal last year between the two foes.

The agreement green-lights Lebanon’s exploration of its southern Qana, or Sidon, reservoir following the signing of the landmark accord last October demarcating its maritime borders with long-time enemy Israel.

Sunday’s deal will see the gas-rich Gulf country’s state-run QatarEnergy receive a minority 30 percent stake in two blocks of Lebanon’s exclusive economic zone, according to Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

French company TotalEnergies and Italy’s Eni will both retain 35 percent shares in the blocks after Russia’s Novatek relinquished its minority stake in 2022.

Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayad and his Qatari counterpart Saad al-Kaabi, who is also QatarEnergy’s chief executive, signed the deal Sunday, along with the heads of Eni and TotalEnergies.

Kaabi told a press conference following the signing ceremony that Qatar’s involvement was an “opportunity to support Lebanon’s economic development”.

Lebanon has been caught in an economic quagmire that has plunged much of its population into poverty and has been described by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern history.

TotalEnergies’ Patrick Pouyanne said he expected the exploration phase of the Qana project to be completed “within the next 12 months”, expressing hope that the work would result in discoveries of hydrocarbons. AFP flation rose in December at its slowest pace in more than a year.

The reading saw dealers ramp up bets on the central bank lifting interest rates this week by just 25 basis points, down from the half-point hike last month, which followed four straight 75-point increases.

The European Central Bank and Bank of England are also due to announce decisions this week.

The meetings come as a string of recent data suggests that last year’s monetary tightening campaign by policymakers was beginning to kick in, as price rises begin to slow from their multidecade highs.

There remains trepidation on trading floors that economies could still slip into recession, while a mixed earnings season so far has also caused concern about company profits.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that while she was pleased to see inflation coming down, she remained wary about the economic outlook.

“I’m reasonably satisfied by the data that I’ve seen so far, but I don’t want to minimise the risk of recession” owing to the Fed’s rate hikes “slowing down the economy”, she told Bloomberg News.

That worry was offsetting optimism in Asia about a strong recovery in China this year, as it emerges after the lifting of painful zero-Covid policies. With AFP