Japan's Nikkei approaches all-time high; Hong Kong leads gains in Asia

Shares of Coinbase Global were up more than 14% in after hours trading after the crypto exchange posted its first quarterly profit since 2021 on Thursday, helped by increased trading volumes.

Alesia Haas, Coinbase's CFO, attributed the strong earnings to the recent fervor in the crypto market following the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. last month.

"We're the proud custodian now of 90% of total ETF crypto, and that's really benefited our platform directly, but what I would say is that we've seen growth at large across the space with this [bitcoin ETF] excitement," she told CNBC's "Closing Bell Overtime."

The price of bitcoin increased more than 50% in the final three months of last year, while Coinbase's transaction volume jumped 64% to $529.3 million over the same period.

Coinbase's momentum "continues to be strong" heading into the first quarter, Owen Lau, executive director and senior analyst at Oppenheimer, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Friday.

"We still have a lot of uncertainty from the regulatory standpoint, but we are moving in the right direction," he said. "We predict pretty sustainable profitability into the next few quarters."

— Dylan Butts

Japan's finance minister said Friday that he was monitoring yen's moves "with a strong sense of urgency," according to a Reuters report, adding that a weak yen has its merits as well as demerits.

"Currency rates are set by markets reflecting fundamentals. Rapid moves are undesirable and stable moves are desirable," Suzuki reportedly told a lower house session of parliament.

The yen weakened on Friday and was trading at the psychologically key 150 per dollar level, a day after the country entered a technical recession.

— Lee Ying Shan, Reuters

Beijing needs to show "more clear signals" for aggressive policy easing to backstop the growth downturn, China markets expert Yan Wang said Friday.

"Other than that, I doubt the market can rally on a sustainable basis," Wang, chief emerging markets and China strategist at global investment research and strategy firm Alpine Macro, said on CNBC's "Street Signs Asia."

Investment banks expect China's economy to expand at a more sluggish pace in 2024 compared with 2023 — even last year the Chinese economy had a slower-than-expected recovery after exiting Covid-19 restrictions.

"The government has refused to issue very strong stimulus to to help the economy and structurally, the policy flip flop Beijing has done over the past few years has damaged confidence," Wang said.

China markets are closed this week for the Chinese New Year holidays.

– Sheila Chiang

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports rose 16.8% in January from a year earlier, coming off from a low base a year, official data showed.

The reading comes after a 1.5% decline in December. Both electronics and non-electronics exports grew, according to a statement released by Enterprise SG.

"NODX [non-oil domestic exports] to the top markets as a whole grew in January 2024, mainly due to China, the U.S. and Hong Kong; though NODX to the EU 27, Taiwan, Japan and Thailand declined," it said.

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, Singapore's NODX increased by 2.3%, non-electronics grew while electronics exports fell.

—Lee Ying Shan

The Nikkei 225 is set to hit all-time highs as it trades over 38,600 points and has been scaling 34-year highs.

A new all-time high for Nikkei is "imminent," Morgan Stanley wrote in a research note dated Feb. 15, maintaining their bullish stance on Japan equities.

"The Nikkei Index has traded up to over 38,000 and now seems likely to break near term the all time high of 38,916 which was set as long ago as December 1989," Morgan Stanley's economists wrote.

The index is currently trading 1.37% higher.

—Lee Ying Shan

Japan's finance minister Shunichi Suzuki said Friday that it was up to the Bank of Japan to decide when it would end its negative interest rate policy, according to a Reuters report.

Japan's economy has lost its spot as the world's third largest to Germany, slipping into a technical recession, and sparking hopes that the central bank might stick with its ultra-loose monetary policy for longer.

"I am aware there are various opinions in the market," Suzuki reportedly said when asked whether the weak gross domestic product data might impact the timing of the central bank's policy changes.

– Lee Ying Shan, Reuters

All three stock major indexes ended the day higher, with the S&P 500 cinching a new record high.

The broad market index rose 0.58% to end at 5,029.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 348.85 points, or 0.91%, to finish at 38,773.12. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.30% to close at 15,906.17.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The S&P 500 closed above 5,000 for the first time last week. But as the index rose, so did concerns about its valuation.

However, investors need not fear as the rally could still have plenty of room to run, according to Capital Economics.

The research firm's chief market economist revealed their price target in a note to clients entitled: "bubble may be far from bursting."

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Oil prices rallied Thursday on a weakening dollar after shaking off earlier losses fom a weak demand forecast for 2024.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for March gained $1.46, or 1.91%, to $78.10 a barrel. The Brent contract for April traded at $82.83 a barrel, adding $1.23 or 1.51% a barrel.

Oil prices were finding support from a weakening dollar after January U.S. retail sales fell more than expected, said Phil Flynn, analyst with the Price Futures Group.

Futures declined about 1% earlier in the trading session after the Paris-based International Energy Agency forecast demand would grow by 1.2 million barrels per day this year, down nearly 50% from growth of 2.3 million bpd in 2023.

— Spencer Kimball

Many U.S. companies have caught the attention of investors amid the artificial intelligence boom, but there are "underappreciated beneficiaries" in Asia-Pacific, according to Morgan Stanley.

It said Japan stands out, with 53% of companies seen as AI beneficiaries — nearly matching the United States' 54%, above Europe's 50% and Asia-Pacific ex-Japan's 39%.

Here are some names in Morgan Stanley's screens of AI beneficiaries — enablers, adopters and those that are both — that it says have the "most potential for outperformance over the next 12 months."

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan