Supply Chain Disruption, Gold Rush, Malaysia Rates: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Tuesday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• Resurgent tensions between Japan and South Korea threaten to wallop chipmakers from Samsung Electronics Co. to SK Hynix Inc., upsetting a carefully choreographed global supply chain by smothering the production of memory chips and other components vital to widely used devices.
• Central banks are going after gold in 2019, boosting holdings as economic growth slows, trade and geopolitical tensions rise, and some authorities seek to diversify their reserves away from the dollar.
• Bank Negara Malaysia may cut its overnight policy rate by 25 bps to 2.75% on July 9, says Bloomberg Economics’ Tamara Henderson. The consensus forecast in a Bloomberg survey is for a hold.
• China’s producer price index may drop year-on-year in June for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2016, and we see it remaining under pressure in the second half, writes Bloomberg Economics’ David Qu.
• Facebook Inc.’s push to create its own cryptocurrency, called Libra, must be put under the oversight of monetary authorities, according to a senior official from China’s central bank.
• For the first time in 30 years, Newage Group, a Bangladesh-based garment manufacturer, is sensing an opportunity to sell in the U.S. And it has President Donald Trump’s battle with China to thank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jiyeun Lee in Hong Kong at jlee1029@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Nasreen Seria

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