Shares in Hong Kong are up nearly 3% following reports that the city is considering relaxing the Covid rule

Fitch Ratings expects house prices in Australia to see a significant drop of between 7% to 10% next year, it said in its latest outlook report.

The agency also predicts that China’s housing prices will fall by 1% to 3% next year.

“We expect rates to decline further in 2023 before bottoming out, but mortgage performance will only deteriorate moderately, in the face of economic headwinds,”[ads1]; Tracy Wan of Fitch Ratings said in the report.

However, house prices in Japan could buck the trend to increase by 2% to 4% in 2023, the report said. Australia’s prices are forecast to rise in 2024.

– Jihye Lee

Japan’s economy saw an annual quarterly contraction of 0.8% in the third quarter, with revised gross domestic product beating expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.1% decline.

The government’s first preliminary estimate released in November was a decrease of 1.2%.

The nation also reported a deficit of 64.1 billion yen ($469.3 million) in its unadjusted current account, government data showed. The reading significantly missed estimates for a profit of 623.4 billion yen in a separate Reuters poll.

– Jihye Lee

Australia’s trade surplus for October came in at 12.2 billion Australian dollars ($8.19 billion), slightly larger than expected, official data showed.

Economists polled by Reuters forecast a print of A$12.1 billion, expecting a further drop than reported – after the economy saw a trade surplus of A$12.4 billion.

Exports fell 0.9%, and imports fell 0.7%.

— Abigail Of

Stocks closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 falling 0.19% to close at 3,933.92.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat, or 1.58 points higher, to end the session at 33,597.92. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.51% to end at 10,958.55.

– Samantha Subin

A shortage of semiconductors amid a boom in electric vehicle sales could help boost profits at a handful of chip makers, according to Bank of America.

The Wall Street bank predicted that two chip stocks could see their share prices rise by more than 75% on the back of this trend.

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– Ganesh Rao

Don’t be surprised if economic data coming out over the next week starts a rally toward the end of the year and potentially 2023, according to Andrew Slimmon, Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s senior portfolio manager.

The key period for data releases begins Friday with the producer price index, followed by November’s consumer price index and another likely rate hike by the Federal Reserve next week.

“The last time these were released they all led to rallies in the stock market because we had better inflationary pressures,” he said.

Like many investors, Slimmon expects a slowdown going forward, given the inverted yield curve, but does not expect the “big earnings collapse” or decline, as many are predicting in the first quarter.

This is partly due to the fact that many consumers have increased their savings in recent years given the proximity of the last recession.

“The takeaway this year is that the economy has proven far more resilient than many expect, and I don’t think next quarter is going to be the end of that,” he said.

– Samantha Subin

It has been a turbulent year for technology companies, as investors flee growth stocks in the face of rising interest rates and other headwinds.

apple has held up better in the middle of the technology boom, although there have been some headwinds.

Two investors met on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” Wednesday to make the case for and against buying the stock.

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— Weizhen Tan