Stocks are under pressure in Asia on Friday morning (05/05) as metal prices continue to slide, while crude oil prices suffered their lowest close since November 2016 after a near five percent plunge yesterday on concerns of a US oil supply glut with analysts forecasting further losses, hence undermining the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)'s earlier efforts to boost the oil price through production cut agreements (chances of seeing deeper cuts in OPEC nations are slim).

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The price of cocoa is expected to remain bearish on the short-term as supplies are set to rise in the western part of Africa, particularly Ivory Coast and Ghana. At the end of trading on Wednesday (03/05) the cocoa price had slid 1.16 percent to USD $1,784 per ton (on the ICE Futures New York, July 2017 delivery). Since the start of 2017 the cocoa price has fallen 15.56 percent.

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The performance of those Indonesian property companies and industrial estate managers that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange is not very encouraging so far this year. When we take a look at the corporate earnings of 17 listed property firm and industrial estate managers, then we see a combined 37.6 percent year-on-year (y/y) fall in net profit in the first quarter of 2017 (from their net profit in the same quarter one year ago). Meanwhile, their combined revenue fell 0.6 percent (y/y) in Q1-2017.

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As widely expected, the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged after May's two-day policy meeting that was concluded on Wednesday (03/05). The US central bank also delivered a rather hawkish policy statement, downplaying weak Q1-2017 economic growth and emphasizing the strength of the US labor market. This implies the Fed is still on track for two more rate hikes in the remainder of 2017.

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