Asia Pacific markets rose after Wall Street saw gains amid optimism led by regional banks

According to RBC Capital Markets, the recent decline in stock prices in European financial institutions provided a buying opportunity.

The investment bank has named five stocks to buy while the share price is down, indicating that these financial institutions aren’t the kind of people facing a bank stampede at all.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Ganesh Rao

The International Monetary Fund agreed to a 3 billion dollars to save Sri Lankaclearing the way for the economy of the South Asian country to restructure its debts.

Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, told CNBC that Sri Lanka’s economy has “contracted severely” as a result of the economic and humanitarian crisis.

However, the International Monetary Fund expects “a contraction of 3% this year before the economy rebounds next year.”

Sri Lanka has been experiencing severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and electricity since last year. The IMF decision will allow immediate disbursement of a $333 million loan over four years.

The IMF approval of the loan is important for Sri Lanka, which defaulted on its debt last year, Gabriel Stern, head of global emerging markets at Oxford Economics, told CNBC in an interview.

Read the full story here.

– Sumathi Bala

Stocks in Thailand rose slightly after the country’s parliament was dissolved on Monday, making way for national elections.

The benchmark Set 50 index rose 0.76% in early trade Tuesday, led by electronics maker and exporter Delta Electronics.

Other top performers include PTT, a Thai state-owned oil and gas company, as well as energy supplier Gulf Energy Development.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry confirmed this Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits Ukraine.

As G-7 [chair]”Prime Minister Kishida will directly convey our solidarity and unwavering support to Ukraine,” a ministry statement said.

The ministry said Kishida will visit Poland on Wednesday after his trip and return to Japan on Thursday.

The Japanese Prime Minister left India after meeting his counterpart there, Narendra Modi. The two leaders discussed stronger ties between their countries – both of which are democracies – in the face of growing assertiveness from China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Last month, Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan told CNBC he was optimistic Kishida would visit Ukraine before hosting the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May.

– Jihe Lee

Moody’s Investors Services affirmed its ratings on UBS Group AG while changing its long-term deposit and unsecured ratings from stable to negative.

The action comes after UBS agreed to acquire Credit Suisse for $3.2 billion, as regulators look to boost confidence in the global banking system.

“Despite the franchise’s ultimate advantages, Moody’s also notes that the deal poses significant financial, cultural and franchise integration challenges for UBSG,” it said in the memo.

Moody’s cited the need to retain Credit Suisse staff in the transaction process, work to reduce losses on customer overlaps in the business and the need to unify the cultures of the two companies as challenges that UBS will face.

She expressed more optimism about the wealth management business of the deal than investment banking.

“Moody’s believes that the acquisition of CSG has the potential, at the appropriate time, to significantly enhance UBSG’s franchise in wealth management, Swiss banking, asset management and to a lesser extent in investment banking, with the goal of reducing operating costs by more than $8 billion.”

– Jihe Lee

South Korea Producer Price Index for February up 4.8% On a year-over-year basis, it’s lower than January’s figure of 5.1%.

This puts the index at 120.42, up from 120.25 in January.

The producer price index measures the average price movements received by domestic producers of goods and services sold.

The Korean won weakened by 0.25% after announcing that it was trading at 1307.43 per dollar.

– Lim Hwi Ji

New Zealand saw its February trade deficit narrow to NZ$714 million ($445 million), which is slightly lower than the NZ$715 million recorded in the same period last year.

The data is from the country’s statistics department It showed that exports of goods rose 0.8% year-on-year to NZ$5.2 billion, while imports of goods rose 0.7% to NZ$5.9 billion.

Exports rose to all of New Zealand’s major export partners, except the European Union. China remained the country’s export partner, with exports increasing 7.1% to NZ$1.5 billion.

However, imports from China saw the biggest drop in February among all of New Zealand’s trading partners, falling 22% to $1.2 billion. Imports rose from all other major trading partners.

The New Zealand dollar strengthened 0.3% on Tuesday, to trade at 0.6227 against the US dollar.

– Lim Hwi Ji

South Korea saw an annual decline of 17.4% in exports and a decline of 5.7% in imports in the first 20 days of March, data From the Ministry of Commerce showed.

Exports in the first twenty days of March amounted to 30.9 billion dollars and imports to 37.3 billion dollars.

Exports to the United States increased by 4.6% compared to the same period last year, while exports to China experienced the largest decline, at 36.2%, followed by Vietnam, down 28.3%.

Imports from China and Taiwan rose by 9.1% and 14.1% respectively, while the largest decline was seen for imports from Australia with a drop of 24.7%.

After the announcement, the Korean won fell 0.18% to trade at 1306.72 against the US dollar.

Fears of contagion in the banking sector may have been eased by a rescue deal for Credit Suisse, but Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, believes stocks are not at risk yet.

“Even if markets rebound from current levels in the short term, high uncertainty and low levels of confidence are likely to mean a ‘fat and flat’ market given that valuations do not look particularly attractive,” he said.

Professional subscribers can read more here.

– Xavier Ong

It wasn’t just regional bank stocks that were hurt by the latest banking crisis – large-cap bank stocks also fell.

But some analysts say the sale is overdone.

Kenny Polcari, chief market strategist at SlateStone Wealth, called the pullback “an opportunity for those with a strong stomach,” referring to stocks such as JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo.

For those looking to invest, CNBC Pro takes a look at what analysts are saying about JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America in particular.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Wizen tan

Billionaire investor and Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman said the Federal Reserve should pause interest rate hikes as the Federal Open Market Committee meeting begins Tuesday.

Noting that the markets experienced “significant shocks” with the closure of US banks, Ackman said that the banking crisis “remains unresolved” and that high interest rates will not help the situation.

“This is not an environment @employee Interest rates must be raised and additional pressure added to the system because financial stability is the first responsibility of the Federal Reserve,” he said in his tweet.

– Jihe Lee

WTI for April fell 1.45% on Monday, trading at $65.75 a barrel. That level is still above Friday’s low of $65.17, the lowest since December 2, 2021 when WTI traded as low as $62.43.

Brent oil prices also fell into the red, recently down 0.7%, or to $72.47 a barrel.

– Piya Singh

Bitcoin climbed to $28,551.73 in early trading, the highest level since June 12, 2022, when bitcoin was trading as high as $28,647.91.

Ether reached $1,846.25, the highest level since August 19, 2022, when ether was trading as high as $1,879. Coinbase is on track for its sixth straight day of progress.

The moves came as the two- and 10-year Treasury yields fell to their lowest levels in six months. The two-year yield in the United States fell to 3.635%, the lowest level since September 13, while the yield on 10-year bonds in the United States touched 3.291%, the lowest level since September 12.

Scott Schneiber, Gina Francola

Here are some of the names that have made the biggest moves in midday trading:

• UBS, Credit Suisse – US-listed Bank Credit Suisse shares are up about 52% after UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs, or $3.2 billion. UBS shares gained about 5%.
• US Bancorp — The stock rose nearly 6% after being upgraded to outperform neutral by Baird. The Wall Street firm said that the US bank Bancorp may benefit as the banking crisis prompts depositors to transfer their holdings to larger regional banks.
• Virgin Orbit Shares fell more than 35% as the company scrambled to secure financing and avoid bankruptcy, which could come as early as this week without a deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

To see more stocks moving around midday, read the full story here.

– Michelle Fox