Highlights

domestic

Enterprise Commodity Price Index for March (12th)

The Bank of Japan's corporate commodity price index for February (preliminary data, 2020 average=100) was 119.3, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%. The growth slowed down from the 9.5% growth rate last month, which was lower than market expectations (an increase of 8.4%). The month on month decline was 0.4%, the first decline since November 2020. The government's economic measures have suppressed the rates of electricity, urban gas, and water, driving the decline of the index. On the other hand, due to the increase in raw material and other material costs and measures to shift prices, agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products, as well as non-ferrous metals, are expected to continue the same trend in March. The Enterprise Commodity Price Index displays the trend of commodity prices traded between enterprises.

In Japanese yen terms, the import price index in February increased by 14.6% year-on-year, continuing to decline significantly from its latest peak on July 22nd (49.2%). Due to the appreciation of the Japanese yen, the growth rate of the import price index in March may further decrease.

United States

Consumer Price Index for March

(CPI, 12th place)

The US Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February, released by the US Department of Labor, increased by 6.0% year-on-year, in line with market expectations. Growth has slowed for the eighth consecutive month, reaching its lowest level since September 21st, but still at a high level. The core CPI (excluding volatile energy and food) increased by 5.5% year-on-year, slowing down from the previous month (up 5.6%), while the growth accelerated to 0.5% from the previous month (up 0.4%). Housing costs such as rent continue to rise.

According to market forecasts, the CPI growth rate is expected to further slow down in March, with a year-on-year increase of 5.2%. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25% at the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in March, but more and more people believe that due to the easing of inflation concerns, the Fed will stop raising interest rates early. The next meeting will be held from May 2nd to 3rd. Following the release of the US employment report on the 7th, CPI may also attract attention.

▽ Initial Public Offering

Ispace (9348)

Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (May 12th)

Support private companies aimed at expanding their lunar business. It will use its own lunar module (lander) to transport customer supplies (payloads) to the moon and provide data investigation and communication services upon arrival. In the future, the company plans to make data services one of its main businesses, and starting from 26, its goal is to develop subscription based services that allow free access to data.

In the fiscal year ended March 23, sales increased due to the progress of the launch plan, but the final loss seems to be due to profit pressure caused by the manufacturing costs of the lander. A contract for future launches has been signed with NASA and is expected to be fully commercialized in the fiscal year 3/24. The sales revenue for the same period is expected to be 6.1 billion yen, an increase of 6.3 times compared to the previous year.