Asia markets mixed after Wall Street's tech rally; Country Garden shares surge

Shares of chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp climbed 1.6% after Apple and Qualcomm signed a deal that will see Qualcomm supply 5G chips to the iPhone maker until at least 2026.

Wall Street analysts and Qualcomm officials had previously said they expected Apple to use an internally developed 5G modem starting in 2024.

TSMC is reported to be one of the manufacturers for Qualcomm's chips, as well as the manufacturer of Apple's chips that power its devices.

Shares of Foxconn, which manufactures Apple products and trades as Hon Hai Precision Industry, saw a larger gain of as much as 2.38%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Chinese real estate developer Country Garden Holdings jumped by nearly 9% before paring gains.

It came after the company's creditors reportedly voted to extend repayments on six onshore bonds by three years.

Creditors voted Monday for proposals by the embattled firm to extend repayments on eight onshore bonds worth 10.8 billion yuan ($1.48 billion).

Reuters, citing two sources, said creditors approved extending six out of the eight bonds, while the other two bonds will see voting delayed.

— Lim Hui Jie

Chip designer Arm is reportedly "getting close" to securing enough investor support to attain the fully diluted valuation of $54.5 billion it seeks in its initial public offering, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

This means Arm will likely be able to price the IPO "at the top or above" the $47-to-$51-per-share range, the report said.

The sources said Arm is also discussing the possibility of raising the price range and seeking a valuation of more than $54.5 billion, in light of strong investor interest.

However, Arm will not offer more shares, as SoftBank wants to retain a 90.6% stake in Arm following the IPO, the sources said.

— Lim Hui Jie, Reuters

Tech investor Paul Meeks said he's looking to buy into the weakness surrounding tech stocks — once the correction has run its course.

The S&P 500 has rallied hard for most of this year on the strength of tech stocks. But in August, the Wall Street index fell 1.8%, snapping a five-month winning streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell more than 2%.

He names nine tech stocks — including his favorite mega-cap U.S. tech stock — as well as some smaller, "contrarian" picks.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Federal Reserve officials are growing less certain about the need for more interest rate hikes, marking a significant shift in their inflation-fighting policy, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The central bank's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee is still likely to pass on an increase at its meeting next week while indicating that one more move is likely before the end of the year.

However, as inflation data has improved, the willingness of committee members to do too much to fight inflation as opposed to too little is beginning to shift, the report states. In recent statements, a number of officials say the balance of risks has shifted and they are now feeling less urgency to tighten.

Market pricing points to a 44.6% chance of a final rate hike at the November meeting, according to CME Group data.

—Jeff Cox

Apple shares fell sharply last week on reports that China is restricting government employees from using iPhones and other Apple devices for work purposes.

Itau BBA analyst Thiago Kapulskis, an Apple bear, said in a note to clients that China concerns were proving to be a catalyst that could bring down Apple's "hard-to-understand valuation" to more reasonable levels.

However, Kapulskis said he was holding off on shorting the stock for now.

CNBC Pro subscribers can find out why.

— Ganesh Rao

Morgan Stanley Adam Jonas and top auto analyst is convinced Tesla's autonomous driving supercomputer is the next catalyst for massive growth.

The analyst upgraded Tesla stock to overweight from equal weight in a Sunday note, and now forecasts more than 60% upside. Jonas says the company's supercomputer project, Dojo, could add as much as $500 billion in company value as Tesla continues its own vertical integration.

The bank also made Tesla one of its top picks.

Tesla stock is up nearly 6% in premarket trading.

PRO subscribers can read the full story on the call here.

— Brian Evans

British bank HSBC has revealed a bucket list of "must see stocks," in the U.K. regardless of how market conditions pan out over the rest of the year.

The stocks were selected based on factors such as price, growth prospects and value.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

Major semiconductor funds are struggling on Monday even as the Nasdaq Composite outperforms and Qualcomm rallies after announcing an extended supply relationship with Apple.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) was down 1.1% in late morning trading. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was down nearly 1%.

On the individual stock level, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and On Semiconductor were all under pressure.

— Jesse Pound

Outperformance among consumer discretionary stocks in the S&P 500 helped the broad index take a leg higher in Monday morning trading.

The S&P 500 sector gained 1.9%, while the index as a whole rose 0.4%. It was the best performing sector of the 11 that make up the index, with materials and communication services following at 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively.

Just three of the 11 sectors traded down in Monday's session. Industrials and information technology each slid 0.2%, while energy shed 0.1%.

Tesla led the consumer discretionary sector higher with a gain of nearly 7%. PulteGroup and Amazon were the next best performers, with both up more than 2%.

— Alex Harring