Hong Kong stocks down 3%, Asia continues to sell-off on Wall Street; The Bank of Japan holds interest rates

The Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged, broadly in line with expectations.

The central bank kept the negative interest rate at -0.1% and reiterated its goal of keeping the yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds around 0%.

“Although the Japanese economy was affected by factors such as rising commodity prices, it has rebounded with the progress of the resumption of economic activity,” the Bank of Japan said in its policy statement. statement On Friday, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s final meeting of his term concluded.

– Jihe Lee

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng saw sharp losses Friday morning, led by consumer cyclicals that fell 3.77%, health care stocks shedding nearly 3% and technology stocks dropping 1.56%.

JD.com fell 11.04%, while Geely Auto dropped 5.49%. BYD lost 5.2 percent and Baidu lost 4.94 percent.

Real estate stocks such as Country Garden also saw huge losses, down 2.73%.

Alibaba was among the biggest companies, down 2.96%.

Japan has agreed to appoint Kazuo Ueda as the new Governor of the Bank of Japan. kyudo mentioned.

Kyodo reported that the approval of the House of Councilors clears the way for the government to formally appoint Ueda.

Kyodo said parliament also approved Shinichi Uchida and Ryuzo Himeno for the posts of deputy governors of the Bank of Japan.

The yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds fell slightly to the upper end of the central bank’s tolerance range of 0.5%.

Jerry Fowler, equity strategist at UBS, says higher interest rates in Europe should cause stock prices in one sector to rise by 20%.

Fowler also revealed that many stocks in the sector are trading below a scale that was ignored since “no one really acknowledged” the phenomenon, despite the potential for “structurally higher” earnings.

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– Ganesh Rao

Bond yields are rising, as markets have become jittery over renewed fears that the US Federal Reserve will keep interest rates higher for longer. The two-year Treasury note topped 5% for the first time since 2007 earlier this week

As prices rise, it becomes more difficult to find stocks that can compete on a yield basis – but some do exist. I used the CNBC Pro FactSet to screen global stocks on the MSCI World Index with returns above 5%.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Wizen tan

A Reuters poll showed that the Bank of Japan is unlikely to make any changes to its monetary policy at the next meeting.

The central bank is expected to maintain its hawkish stance and keep the benchmark interest rate at -0.1% during the two-day meeting which will mark Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s last meeting before his term ends in April.

Goldman Sachs He cited three main motivations for Kuroda not making any changes: the meeting’s proximity to the end of the fiscal year, ongoing wage negotiations, and Kuroda’s “long-standing view that premature rate hikes have delayed Japan’s exit from deflation”.

“A little more attention remains to be taken,” Goldman analysts wrote, adding that they believe “caution should be warranted in the event Governor Kuroda takes responsibility for a policy cleanup of yield curve control.”

Kazuo Ueda has been nominated to become the next Governor of the Bank of Japan.

– Lee Ying Chan

Government data showed that Japanese household spending fell 0.3% in January on an annual basis.

That’s far less than the forecast of economists polled by Reuters for a 0.1% decline for the month from a year ago. Household spending in December decreased by 1.3%.

– Jihe Lee

South Korea’s current account balance returned to a deficit of $4.52 billion in January, Bank of Korea data show up.

This comes after the reading saw a surplus of $2.68 billion in the current account balance in December.

The January report marks the first time that South Korea’s current account balance has fallen into deficit territory since August 2022.

The value of the Korean won was 1,323.92 against the US dollar.

It’s not just regional and tech-focused banks that are under pressure on Thursday.

The four largest US banks — JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup — are all underperforming in the broader market. Shares of Wells Fargo and Bank of America fell more than 6%.

Combined, the declines for the four banks represent a loss of nearly $56 billion in market value for the day.

– Jesse Pound, Christopher Hayes

Stocks fell on Thursday, accelerating losses in the final hour of trading.

The S&P 500 fell 1.85%, closing at 3918.32, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 543.54 points, or 1.66%, to settle at 32254.86. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 2.05%, closing at 11,338.35.

– Samantha Sobin

Bank of America analyst Brad Lane raised his price target for US-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to $115 from $105. The new target indicates a gain of 26.6% from Wednesday’s close.

“Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) is a major beneficiary and among the top 20 global AI stocks due to the growing and expanding applications of Language Large Models (LLMs) and generative AI, led by ChatGPT,” Lin wrote.

“We believe that generative AI should act as one of the greatest drivers, thanks to the significant computational requirements for running and training AI models.”

– Sarah Maine

Initial job claims came in at 211,000 for the week ending March 4, the highest level for the year since December 24.

Continuing claims also hit an annual high, at 1.718 million for the week of February 25. This was also the highest level dating back to December 17th.

Samantha Sobin, Gina Francola