Asia markets mixed even as Fed forecasts more rate hikes to deal with inflation

The central bank of the Philippines held its policy interest rates Thursday for the second straight time, after pausing hikes in its May meeting.

Its benchmark rate now stands at 6.25%, the highest interest rate the country has seen since May 2007.

— Lim Hui Jie

Indonesia's central bank has held its seven-day reverse repurchase rate at 5.75%, the fourth straight month that it has held the benchmark policy rate at this level.

The bank's deposit facility rates and lending facility rates were also held at 5% and 6.5% respectively.

— Lim Hui Jie

Nintendo shares were up more than 2%, hitting a new 52-week intraday high following the Nintendo Direct event Wednesday that revealed a wide slate of upcoming titles.

The company announced new additions to blockbuster franchises like Super Mario and Pokemon, as well as third party games in the Batman and Persona universes.

However, Nintendo is not likely to announce new hardware this calendar year as it wants to "monetize what's left" in the Switch life cycle, said Serkan Toto, founder of Kantan Games. The company hopes to capture holiday sales later this year with the current Switch, he told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia."

The software releases planned for later this year are typical for the tail-end of a console's life cycle, said Toto. "It's a pretty strong finish for the Switch."

— Audrey Wan

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son saying most of the Japanese firm's investments are artificial intelligence-related is a "nice headline" but "we don't see them as AI," said a Jefferies analyst.

"He made a lot of investments which he termed as AI. We don't see them as AI, but Arm, which he's preparing for an IPO, is an AI play alongside Nvidia," said Atul Goyal, managing director at Jefferies Asia, on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" Thursday. Arm is a British chip design firm SoftBank acquired in 2016.

Son on Wednesday said that the Japanese investment firm plans to go back on the offensive and capitalize on the AI boom.

"The other big investments [of SoftBank] are Coupang and DoorDash. All these companies are matching demand and supply, which a lot of other companies like stockbrokers have done for decades. That doesn't make them AI," said Goyal.

"[Son] has been talking about AI for the last five, six years. He was very early on the thematic side, but for specific stocks, unfortunately, it doesn't look like he's picked up the best ones."

— Sheila Chiang

Shares of Southeast Asia's largest bank DBS rose 0.48%, even after the bank was hit with a 2.6 million Singapore dollar ($1.94 million) fine from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for breaching its requirements on anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing.

MAS imposed fines on three banks for the breach relating to the 2019 Wirecard scandal, namely DBS, OCBC Bank and Citibank, as well as insurer Swiss Life for the breach.

OCBC shares fell 0.72%, after it received a SG$600,000 fine from the MAS. Citibank and Swiss Life were fined SG$400,000 and SG$200,000 respectively.

— Lim Hui Jie

U.S. stocks have been red-hot, with the S&P 500 hitting its highest level in over a year.

But Steven Glass, managing director and analyst at Pella Funds Management, says U.S. markets have "run too fast, too quickly."

Investors can look at cheaper stocks instead, according to Glass. Of the four stocks he named, two are "very cheap," he said.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Shares of a Wall Street bank are forecast to more than double over the next 12 months, according to Jefferies.

Jefferies' analysts suggest that large-scale share buybacks of about $4.7 billion over the next three years could help push up the global lender's stock price.

They expect the bank to generate around $24 billion of profit over the course of 2023 to 2025.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday said he and his colleagues expect more interest rate increases ahead as inflation is still too high.

"Inflation pressures continue to run high, and the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go," he said in prepared remarks for a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.

Powell noted that "nearly all" policymakers figure additional hikes will be needed to bring inflation closer in line to the Fed's 2% target.

—Jeff Cox

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave high marks to the U.S. economy, which has held steady despite the central bank's efforts to slow growth and bring down inflation.

"The economy is very strong," Powell said Wednesday morning during one of his exchanges with House Financial Services Committee members. "What's driving it now is just a very strong labor market."

The chair noted that the Fed considers inflation fighting to be its top priorities, and said, "We have quite a ways to go, but we're making progress."

Even with 5 percentage points worth of rate hikes since March 2022, Powell said, "Our recovery is by far the strongest of many countries."

—Jeff Cox

Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic said Wednesday the central bank can stop raising interest rates as it gauges the impact of the 10 previous hikes.

"I think we are in a place where we should let the hard work the Committee has already done work its way through the economy and see if it continues to bring inflation closer to our goal," Bostic said in an essay.

He labeled his policy outlook as a "play-it-by-ear approach" in which policymakers can watch for impacts of policy tightening and then decide at each individual meeting whether to hike, hold or cut.

Bostic is nonvoting member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee this year.

—Jeff Cox

West Texas Intermediate crude settled up 1.88% at $72.53 per barrel, and also hit its highest level since June 8 during the trading session.

The U.S. oil benchmark is now up 6.52% for the month, on track for its best month since October 2022.

The gains for oil this month have come despite concerns about economic growth in China and Federal Reserve officials signaling that more rate hikes are likely coming in the U.S.

— Jesse Pound, Gina Francolla

The Federal Trade Commission sued online retail behemoth Amazon on Wednesday over alleged usage of deceptive design tactics.

The FTC say Amazon knowingly pushed users to sign up for the company's Prime service and actively discouraged their efforts to cancel. The lawsuit stems from a March 2021 investigation into Amazon's processes for customer sign-ups and membership cancelations.

"Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money," FTC Chair Lina Khan said.

— Brian Evans