Short Summary May 2024

While an upbeat US equity market supported Japanese equities, concerns over additional interest rate hikes by the BOJ, the recovery of Chinese stocks, and cautious guidance for FY2024 resulted in sideways movement.

We will maintain a positive outlook on the stock market in the medium- and long- term, for the following reasons; (1) We anticipate that cost-push inflation will remain through the end of this year, leading to an increase in wage rates during next year's spring labor negotiations, (2) Japanese companies have been steadily improving their awareness of capital costs and stock prices, and (3) there are encouraging signs of an equity culture emerging among individual investors.

Full article: https://www.am-one-int.co.uk/our-firm/news-updates/227-japan-investment-commentary-and-market-outlook-may-2024