Hong Kong stocks rise in mixed Asia-Pacific session, Softbank shares drop 14%

Foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia will not return to pre-Covid levels until 2025, according the nation's tourism ministry.

Sandiaga Uno, the nation's minister of tourism and creative economy, said foreign tourist arrivals are currently at 25% of pre-pandemic levels.

The government has also targeted to create 4.4 million new jobs in the tourism industry by 2024, with 1.1 million "new and better quality jobs" already being added this year, Uno said.

— Charmaine Jacob

Observers are not expecting much progress from the bilateral summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, according to Economist Impact, the policy and insights arm of The Economist Group.

"Expectations are not very high," Andrew Staples, Asia-Pacific director of Economist Impact, told CNBC's Martin Soong, highlighting Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a focal point of simmering tensions between the Washington and Beijing.

"China has been unfortunately ... somewhat ambivalent about [the war in Ukraine] when it comes to President Putin," he said, adding that China's stance is "damaging the global economy."

"There's a lot of concern from the business community globally that this geopolitical tension is impacting negatively."

—Jihye Lee

The U.S.-China relationship is the "world's most important bilateral" one, and it is fraught with tension — but Washington can change that, according to Jeffrey Sachs, professor at Columbia University.

"I think the U.S. should start by saying we want to have normal relations. We're not trying to stop the Chinese economy," he said.

His comments come hours before a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Bali, Indonesia, where the G-20 Summit is set to take place.

"It's been too much sound bites in each direction and a lot of tension and, to my mind, too much U.S. unilateralism, rather than bilateral negotiation and diplomacy," he added.

"The U.S. and China should ease up, stop this friction, stop this Cold War for the benefit of both of the economies and for the rest of the world," Sachs said.

— Abigail Ng

Alibaba's logistics arm Cainiao announced the opening of its Latin American headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The company said low-cost drones and bluetooth headphones are among the most popular products for local customers.

The expansion comes as China's retail growth has slowed — Alibaba for the first time didn't release total sales for its flagship Singles' Day shopping festival that ended Friday.

Cainiao's expansion comes after Alibaba's international e-commerce platform AliExpress told CNBC it spent millions of dollars to reach the South Korean market.

— Evelyn Cheng

Bitcoin fell as low as $15,904.44 in Asia's morning, according to Coin Metrics, marking its lowest levels in around two years. Bitcoin last hovered around similar levels in Nov. 16, 2020, when it reached $15,860.81.

Ether also fell, reaching as low as $1,170.34, as more details emerge around crypto exchange FTX's operations.

Crypto investors have lost around $2 trillion since its peak a year ago.

— Abigail Ng

Swiss bank UBS has forecasted a "sharp" disinflation in 2023.

It said weak growth alongside "mechanical" indicators, such as easing supply chain bottlenecks and rising goods inventories, would see prices fall next year.

The investment bank screened for stocks that would benefit from such an environment.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about their forecasts, and eight stocks we've highlighted from their list.

— Ganesh Rao

Shares of Chinese property developers listed in Hong Kong surged at the open following a local media report that a number of additional measures will be introduced to support the real estate market's recovery.

Cifi Holdings rose 29.84%, Country Garden jumped 32%, Logan Group rose 38%, and Longfor Group jumped 22% early in the session, buoying the wider index.

The report said there would be financial support for real estate deals and projects, including loan extensions to developers.

Those measures "may generate notable market reactions without dramatically changing the current economic fundamentals," Goldman Sachs economists said of the report in a Monday note.

—Jihye Lee

Shares of tech giant SoftBank Group plunged nearly 12% in Japan's morning session after Vision Fund, the company's tech investment vehicle, reported a loss of 1.38 trillion yen ($9.88 billion) for the quarter ending on Sept. 30.

"Share prices of numerous public portfolio companies declined amid the weakness in global stock markets, and the fair value of a wide range of private portfolio companies also decreased," SoftBank said in its latest financial report.

SoftBank reported a net profit of 3.03 trillion yen after two quarters of losses.

— Abigail Ng

This year's bear market has wiped trillions of dollars in market cap off the stock market, but a few stocks have outperformed significantly during this period.

Bank of America identified three retail stocks that bucked the trend, and says one remains a buy.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Zavier Ong

The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed its session last Friday 7.7% higher, seeing its best day since March 16, when the index rose 9.08%.

On a weekly basis, the index rose 7.2% as China eased Covid measures, after seeing a gain of 8.73% the previous week on rumors of China's reopening plans.

The index is up almost 18% month-to-date and could post its best monthly performance since April 1999, when the Hang Seng index gained 21.85%.

— Gina Francolla, Jihye Lee