Asia markets mostly fall as Fed warns of recession risk triggered by banking crisis

Exports from China outperformed expectations, recording a surprising surge of 14.8% growth in March after a fall of 6.8% in February.

This ended a fifth straight month of decline, and imports were also weaker than expected at 1.4%.

In US dollar terms, China’s trade surplus was $88.19 billion, well above the expected surplus of $39.2 billion.

The Chinese yuan rose to 6.8722 against the US dollar.

— Lee Ji-hye

Australian mining company BHP has received shareholder approval for its A$9.6 billion ($6.4 billion) acquisition of nickel and copper mining company Oz Minerals.

At the general meeting of shareholders, 78.93% of proxy votes Shareholders voted in favor of the transaction.

Provided by BHP Consideration of A$28.25 per share for the acquisition, comprising A$26.50 paid in cash by BHP and A$1.75 paid by Oz Minerals as a special dividend.

If the acquisition is approved by the Australian Federal Court on April 17, Oz Minerals shares will be delisted on April 18.

Australia’s unemployment rate stood at 3.5% in March, unchanged from February and below economists’ expectations of 3.6%.

In March, the country’s Statistics Bureau revealed Its employment increased by 31,700 to 13.88 million, an increase of only 0.2%.

The employment rate is one of the key indicators the Reserve Bank of Australia will watch to determine whether it will resume rate hikes after pausing at 3.6% in March.

— Lim Hijie

Chinese tech giant Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 3.9% in early trading on Thursday, trailing losses in U.S.-listed shares.

Alibaba’s US-listed shares fell nearly 3% in after-hours trading overnight after regulatory files revealed SoftBank had sold a majority stake in the company.

Ann analysis A company filing by the Financial Times revealed that SoftBank has sold about $7.2 billion worth of stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant in a prepaid forward deal.

With the sale, the report notes that SoftBank currently holds only a 3.8% stake in Alibaba.

— Lim Hui Jae, Jonathan Bunyan

Troubled real estate developer Sunac China plunged 55% after opening in Hong Kong. The company resumed trading Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the first time in a year.

snack china said filing A request to reopen trading earlier this week said it was in the process of implementing a restructuring plan.

Trading in the company’s stock was halted alongside a number of Chinese developers who defaulted on their debt payments last year.

Sunac China has agreed to restructure its $9 billion debt by converting it into new bonds and convertible bonds backed by Hong Kong shares and shares of its unit, Sunac Services.

The central bank of the Philippines has suggested it may pause rate hikes at its meeting next month.

at a briefing Streamed on Facebook, Gov. Felipe Medalla said, “The inflation record is so good that we will probably pause at the next meeting.”

The country is raising interest rates at the fastest pace in Asia, with interest rates rising by 425 basis points since May 2021.

The current policy rate is 6.25% after being raised by 25 basis points in March.

— Lim Hijie

Australia’s unemployment rate is expected to rise to 3.6% in March, up from 3.5% in February, according to a Reuters poll.

The labor force participation rate was 66.6% in March and is expected to remain at the same level as the figure a month ago.

Total employment numbers are set to plummet to a third of what was seen in February, with economists expecting to see readings at 20,000 jobs compared to 64,600 in February doing.

Ahead of the release, the Australian dollar rose slightly against the US dollar to 0.6691.

— Lee Ji-hye

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda has reiterated that Japan’s inflation rate will fall below the central bank’s 2% target heading into the middle of the year, emphasizing that the BOJ will continue to ease monetary policy until price stability is achieved. . report.

Ueda addressed the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Washington.

He added that the risk of inflation falling short of target was greater than the risk of major problems stemming from excesses, and stressed the need to implement policies accordingly.

Mr. Ueda’s words are similar to the message he emphasized in his inaugural speech that the Bank of Japan would maintain its yield curve control policy and negative interest rate policy.

— Lee Ji-hye

The China Internet ETF (KWEB) fell more than 3% overnight on Wall Street, continuing its seventh-day decline.

Wednesday’s session was also the ETF’s worst day in over a month as KWEB fell about 5.5% on March 9.

Weibo, JD.com, and Autohome were the leading losers, with all names down about 11% since the beginning of the month.

— Gina Francola, Jihye Lee

Economists polled by Reuters expect China’s exports to fall 7% year-on-year, sharper than the 6.8% fall in February.

Imports are expected to fall 5%, down from 10.2% in the previous month, according to a Reuters poll.

In terms of US dollars, China’s trade balance is expected to reach more than $39 billion after posting a surplus of $116 billion last month.

Offshore Chinese renminbi rose slightly against the US dollar to 6.8790 during the Asian morning.

— Lee Ji-hye

The State Bank of India (SBI) is witnessing a year-to-date decline in its share price due to its controversial Adhani exposure, despite the benefits of high deposit flows and strong deposit growth in a low-growth environment .

Meanwhile, HDFC Bank shares are up 4% this year.

However, only one of the two banks is rated as a buy by almost all analysts.

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— Ganesh Rao

In South Korea, import and export prices fell further in March.

Export prices fell 6.4% after falling 2.7% in the previous month. Export prices fell for the seventh straight month, the biggest drop since October 2020.

Import prices fell 6.9% in March, sharply lower than the 0.5% fall in February, according to government data. Import prices fell for the 11th straight month, the biggest drop since January 2021.

— Lee Ji-hye

Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Slimon expects the US economic slowdown to be slower than many expected.

A senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management lists stocks to buy and avoid in the face of market uncertainty.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Tan Weizhen

Richmond Federal Reserve Governor Thomas Birkin said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that inflation may be behind the U.S. in peaking, but “there’s still a long way to go.”

He noted that shelter and service inflation is still rising. “If you want to be 2% [inflation], I think we are still a ways from there. ”

— Fred Imbert

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said he didn’t think he could run the Federal Reserve as well as Jerome Powell. The Fed has drawn criticism from those who say it was too late to target higher inflation.

“We have to act on ill-informed and have a final responsibility to the American people,” Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“That doesn’t mean we can stop the recession, it doesn’t mean we can turn bad debt into good debt. But it does mean we have to keep the system working. Stop it,” he added. rice field.

“Thank heavens that Jay Powell was there,” he added in March 2020.

— Sarah Min, Alex Haring

Stocks rose at Wednesday’s open as traders digested the latest US Consumer Price Index data.

The Dow is up more than 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are up 0.5% and 0.8% respectively.

— Fred Imbert