Canadians are in better financial shape than the pessimists think + MORE Jun 8th

HONG KONG – Asian stocks were lower Monday as investors looked past an upbeat report on Japanese growth to signs that the world’s third-biggest economy would slow in the second quarter.
KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 per cent to 20,388.75 and South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.2 per cent to 2,065.02. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2 per cent to 27,212.60 while the Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.1 per cent to 5,028.31. Southeast Asian benchmarks were also lower. Australia’s stock market was closed for a holiday.
JAPAN ECONOMY: The Cabinet Office said the economy grew 3.9 per cent in the January-March quarter, faster than the 2.4 per cent initially estimated. However, the picture may not be as rosy as the headline number suggests, as analysts expect growth in the second quarter to slow sharply as consumer spending slows and industrial output wanes.
ANALYST VIEW: Rising inventories contributed to the Japan data’s upward revision the first quarter and “this implies that the underlying pace of demand was not nearly as strong as the headline suggests,” said Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics…

ERIC is one of several new platforms inspired by regulators’ efforts to narrow the scope for conflicts of interest in financial trading. It aims to reinvigorate a research industry that has long relied on fund managers’ customers paying an all-in commission on every trade

TOKYO – Japan’s economy grew at a faster pace than initially estimated in the January-March quarter, expanding at a 3.9 per cent annual rate on stronger consumer and corporate spending.
The revision announced Monday by the Cabinet Office was sharply higher than the 2.4 per cent pace initially reported. On a quarterly basis, the economy grew 1 per cent, compared with the initial estimate of a 0.6 per cent increase.
Strong private demand in residential and corporate spending helped push growth higher, with corporate investment revised to a 2.7 per cent quarterly increase, from the 0.4 per cent preliminary estimate.
The government has pointed to the stronger growth as a sign the recovery is gaining strength.
Rising inventories also contributed to the upward revision, however, and many economists have forecast that growth slowed in the current quarter on slowing consumer spending and industrial output.
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Two reports over the past week provide fresh evidence that Canadians are reasonable savers, with strongly rising levels of wealth and good prospects for enjoyable retirements

HONG KONG – Chinese imports and exports shrank again in May, the latest sign of sputtering growth in the world’s second biggest economy that adds to pressure on Beijing to avoid a sharp slump.
Customs data released Monday showed that exports contracted 2.8 per cent from a year earlier to $1.17 trillion yuan ($189 billion).
Imports shrank 18.1 per cent to $803.3 billion yuan ($129 billion).
For the first five months of the year, total imports and exports fell 7.8 per cent.
China’s leaders are trying to steer the economy toward growth based on domestic spending and reduce its reliance on trade and investment.
The economy expanded 7 per cent in the first quarter, the slowest quarterly growth since the end of the global financial crisis in 2009.
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