Asia markets mixed as Wall Street banking fears reignite

Australian inflation A slowdown in the first quarter of 2023 It is 7% year-on-year, down from a 23-year high of 7.8% in the quarter ended December 2022.

It also ended five consecutive increases in the consumer price index since the quarter ended September 2021.

The national statistics office said the biggest contributors to the March quarter were gas and household fuel costs, which surged 14.3%, and higher education and domestic vacation travel costs, which rose 9.7% and 4.7%, respectively.

Excluding the 30% most volatile items in the cost calculation, trimmed average CPI was 6.6% compared to 6.9% last quarter.

— Lim Hijie

Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks have fallen since the start of the year, partly due to growing interest in chatbots.

But for investors who may have missed out on such stock gains, HSBC has identified four Chinese stocks that will benefit from the growth trend.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Hong Kong’s March exports and imports both fell by 1.5% and 0.6% respectively from a year earlier.

Tuesday in Hong Kong The Census and Statistics Division said Exports totaled $367.2 billion and imports $407.8 billion in March.

Exports to mainland China continued to decline and exports to other major Asian markets showed mixed performance, while exports to the United States and the European Union returned to growth.

— Lim Hijie

Markets have been volatile for most of 2022 and this year, thanks to inflation, US Federal Reserve rate hikes, and a banking crisis.

Tech stocks have been in bearish territory for much of last year, but despite the uncertainty, 2023 is a bright spot so far.

With 25 years of investment experience and portfolio manager at Polar Capital, Ben Rogoff has a strategy for de-risking investments in growth stocks such as technology.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Tan Weizhen

First Republic shares continue their decline in afternoon trading. They were last down 44% and were trading below $9 a share before trading was halted due to volatility.

The bank said in its earnings call on Monday that it was considering strategic moves to help restructure its balance sheet. For banks, we reported that the next few days will be critical.

Utility and consumer goods stocks were able to reverse the S&P 500 decline on Tuesday.

Of the index’s 11 sectors, only two traded green and were up about 0.3%. Nine other sectors traded in the red and the Composite Index fell 0.9%.

Energy was the worst performer of the 11 sectors, with a loss of 1.8%.

— Alex Haring

First Republic shares widened losses to more than 27% on Tuesday morning.

The stock is now down more than 90% year-to-date.

The stock also set a new intraday low for the year at $11.20 per share. The previous low was $11.52 per share for him on March 20, according to FactSet.

— Jesse Pound

Fast-food chain McDonald’s rose nearly 1% in extended trading after reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.63, beating the $2.33 consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenues of $5.9 billion exceeded expectations of $5.59 billion.

McDonald’s also continues to attract customers, with U.S. traffic increasing for three straight quarters, despite rising menu prices.

— Alex Haring, Amelia Lucas

UPS shares fell more than 5% after reporting quarterly results that fell short of analyst expectations.

The company earned an adjusted $2.20 per share on earnings of $22.93 billion. According to Refinitiv, analysts expected him to earn $2.21 per share on earnings of $23.01 billion.

“We faced continued weakness in demand in Asia, with lower-than-expected sales volumes driven by a slowdown in U.S. retail sales,” CEO Carol Tomé said in a statement. Given the circumstances, we expect volumes to continue to be under pressure.”

— Fred Imbert