Week in review
- U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI increased to 52.6 in January
- China RatingDog Manufacturing PMI rose to 50.3 in January
- U.S. JOLTs Job Openings declined to 6.5M in December
Week ahead
- U.S. non farm payrolls and unemployment rate
- China inflation rate
Thought of the week
Asian technology stocks came under renewed pressure this week as concerns over AI-driven cannibalization of traditional software business models dominated market sentiment. The sell-off followed the rollout of a comprehensive suite of enterprise plugins spanning legal, sales, marketing, finance, and data analysis, signaling a structural shift as AI evolves from simple chatbots into task-executing agents that can operate across local files and browsers. Asia’s broader tech sector held up better than U.S. peers, given its heavier tilt toward hardware makers—key beneficiaries of the AI investment boom. The divergence between software weakness and hardware resilience underscores a growing bifurcation within the technology ecosystem as markets recalibrate assessments of which segments face genuine obsolescence risk. A balanced, diversified allocation, underpinned by disciplined active management, remains essential to navigate ongoing sector rotation, mitigate valuation risk, and capture the widening spectrum of AI-linked beneficiaries.
Valuation of NASDAQ-100 and MSCI AC Asia Pacific Information Technology
Forward price-to-earnings ratio

Source: MSCI, FactSet, J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Data reflect most recently available as of 5/2/26.
Market data

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All returns in local currency unless stated otherwise.
Currencies’ return are based on foreign currencies per U.S. dollar. An appreciation of the foreign currency against the U.S. dollar would be positive and a depreciation of the foreign currency against the U.S. dollar would be negative.