Hang Seng falls as China CPI contracts in October

China's consumer prices

China's consumer prices swung back into contraction in October. The consume price index dropped 0.2% from a year earlier, a faster decline than the 0.1% fall expected, confirming that China's battle with disinflationary forces is far from over. Consumer prices slipped into deflation in July and returned to positive in August, but were flat in September. Factory-gate deflation persisted in October for the 13th straight month. The producer price index fell 2.6% year-on-year against a 2.5% drop in September. Economists had predicted a 2.7% fall.

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca raised its annual core profit outlook as the drugmaker benefited from strong demand for its oncology and rare blood disorder drugs. Core EPS up 4% to $1.73.

Total revenue came in at $11.49 billion in Q3, compared to $10.98 billion a year ago. The London-listed company now expects core earnings per share to increase by a low double-digit to low-teens percentage for the year, compared with an earlier forecast of high single-digit to low double-digit percentage growth.

Airbus

Watch out for Airbus shares at the open this morning. The group released its Q3 earnings after the European market closed yesterday. Net income rose by 21% to €806 million. Revenues increased 12% to €14.90 billion, mainly reflecting the higher deliveries of commercial aircraft. Airbus said it would increase the production rate for the A350 to 10 aircraft a month in 2026 and continue to target rate 4 for the A330 in 2024. The company still expects to achieve around 720 commercial aircraft deliveries in 2023. It also keeps its earnings forecast unchanged.

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom raised its full-year forecast for the third time this year on the back of solid third-quarter earnings. Net profit rose 21.9% to €1.9 billion. Net revenue increased by 0.7. Deutsche Telekom wants to increase its dividend to 77 eurocents per share and plan a share buyback programme of up to billion.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney exceeded Wall Street's earnings expectations yesterday evening, sending the shares higher in extended trading. Earnings came in at 82 cents per share, to be compared with the 30 cents recorded the same quarter a year ago and 11 cents higher than analysts' forecasts. Revenue, however, narrowly missed forecasts.

Disney had nearly 7 million Disney+ streaming subscribers in the quarter. Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar together boast 150.2 million subscribers, ahead of an estimate of 147.4 million. Following this set of results, Bob Iger highlighted the significant progress made since he came back at the helm of the group, adding, "While we still have work to do, these efforts have allowed us to move beyond this period of fixing and begin building our businesses again."

Lyft

Another all-session stock on the IG platform, Lyft reported earnings that missed estimates yesterday evening, sending the stock lower in after-hour trading. The group posted a loss of 3 cents per share, to be compared with expectations for 15 cents in profit. Revenue was marginally higher than forecast at $1.16 billion. Gross bookings rose 15% to $3.55 billion.

Gold

Gold hovers near a three-week low. The precious metal fell this week after Fed officials who spoke this week maintained a balanced tone on the U.S. central bank's next decision but noted that they would focus on economic data and the impact of higher long-term bond yields. Traders now await comments from Jerome Powell for more clues on interest rates. Yesterday, the Fed chair did not comment on monetary policy or the economic outlook in prepared remarks at a conference.