Hong Kong leads losses in Asia after hot U.S. inflation report; Japan workers set for sharpest wage spike in 30 years

Prices of homes in China continued to slide further in February, despite a record cut to the benchmark mortgage rate last month.

The country's National Bureau of Statistics said that on a month on month basis, prices of new homes fell 0.3% in first tier cities, which include Beijing and Shanghai.

Sale prices also slipped 0.3% in second tier cities, a smaller decline compared to January's 0.4%. In third tier cities, prices dropped 0.4% from January.

On a year on year basis, new home prices fell 1% in first tier cities, up from 0.5% in January, although the NBS said this was due to a high base.

Prices of new homes in second and third-tier cities fell by 1.1% and 2.7% respectively year-on-year.

— Lim Hui Jie

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plunged over 2%, dragged by losses in consumer cyclicals and health-care stocks.

The largest loser on the index was pharmaceutical company Wuxi Biologics, which plunged 7.21%.

Other names on the top losers list included property developer Longfor Group, which shed 5.68%, as well as tech giant Meituan, which slid 4.84%.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of One97 Communications jumped 5% after the company said it was granted a third-party application provider license by the National Payments Corporation of India. Last month, Indian bourses implemented circuit limits on the stock after the Reserve Bank of India ordered Paytm Payments Banks to stop onboarding new customers.

This will allow Paytm app users to transfer funds through India's unified payment interface even after Paytm Payments Bank closes down operations by March 15. India's UPI is a real-time payments platform that allows fund transfers across banks.

The statement said four banks including Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and YES Bank will act as "payment system provider" banks to One97 Communications.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp were set to recall some 170,000 electric vehicles in South Korea due to software problems in their charging systems, according to South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Hyundai will recall 113,916 EVs which affecting five EV models, including the popular Ioniq-series. Kia will recall 56,016 EVs, according to the ministry.

The statement said recalls are due to start Monday.

Shares of both companies were about 0.3% higher each, while the broader Kospi shed 1%.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

China's central bank left a key lending rate unchanged for a seventh month when it rolled over maturing medium-term loans on Friday, according to an official release.

The People's Bank of China kept the interest rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility loans at 2.50% — a rate that has been in place since mid-August — when rolling over 387 billion yuan ($54.2 billion) worth of loans of that tenure.

But this figure is lower than the 481 billion yuan worth of MLF loans set to expire this month. This means that PBOC withdrew a net 94 billion yuan from the banking system. Reuters reported that this is the first cash withdrawal through the liquidity instrument since November 2022.

— Clement Tan

Shares of Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn surged over 8% following the release of its fourth-quarter and full-year results.

Foxconn, which is traded in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry, recorded full-year attributable profit of 142.1 billion New Taiwan dollars ($4.49 billion), which translated to earnings of NT$10.25 per share, a 16-year high. Revenue, however, declined 7% from a year ago to NT$6.16 trillion.

In light of these results, Hon Hai announced it will distribute a cash dividend of NT$5.40 per share, the highest since its listing in 1991 and implying a payout ratio exceeding 50% for the fifth year in a row.

Looking forward, Foxconn also revised upward its full-year 2024 outlook from a "neutral" call to "significant" growth, due to the recent increase in generative AI applications, which means that "the visibility on AI servers has become very high," the company said.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japan's finance minister, Shunichi Suzuki, said that the country was "no longer in deflation," adding that "strong trend of wage hikes is taking place," according to a Reuters report.

This marks a distinct break from statements from authorities including prime minister Fumio Kishida, who said in January that "a return to deflation... cannot be ruled out."

As such, the government will mobilize all available policy steps to continue the positive momentum on wages, Suzuki said, according to the report. The finance minister did not comment on the Bank of Japan's policy measures at its meeting on March 18-19.

— Lim Hui Jie, Reuters

The Bank of Japan is preparing to ending its negative interest wage policy, according to Japanese news outlet Jiji News.

The report said that this will take place at the BOJ monetary policy meeting on March 18-19, according to a Google translation.

Jiji also added that this was due to large companies handing out wage increases that were significantly higher than last year, "strengthening the [BOJ's] view that the 2% price increase target is more likely to be achieved sustainably." 

The final decision will be made after confirming the results of the first round of company responses on Friday from the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, commonly known as Rengo.

— Lim Hui Jie

There's a whole world of stocks beyond flashy AI names such as Nvidia for investors looking to ride the latest tech wave, according to investment firm Fidelity International

The AI boom that started with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 has been a particular boon for Nvidia, whose graphics processing units are used to train and run the chatbot. The chip designer's shares have skyrocketed almost 280% in the past year.

"Rather than focusing on so-called hot AI stocks – because names that are big today may not be the winners of tomorrow – investors may consider the many indirect beneficiaries, or diversified businesses, where the benefits of AI may not be immediately obvious to investors," Fidelity said in its report.

The investment firm named several alternative sectors it expects to benefit from the AI boom.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Sheila Chiang

Semiconductor stocks got a lift from the rising tide of artificial intelligence.

But the divergence between semiconductor stocks that are doing well and those that aren't is becoming starker, UBS said.

Here's its list of most and least preferred names.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Crude oil futures rose on Thursday, adding to the previous session's gains as the International Energy Agency now forecasts a supply deficit for 2024.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for April rose $1.54, or 1.93%, to settle at $81.26 a barrel in U.S. crude's highest close since Nov. 2, 2023. The Brent contract for May added $1.27, or 1.51%, to $85.30 a barrel.

The move came after the IEA forecast a slight supply deficit for the year rather than a surplus, as the organization assumes OPEC+ will keep its production cuts in place through 2024. The cartel's cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day are officially in place through at least the second quarter.

JPMorgan & Chase slipped more than 1% Thursday after the Federal Reserve announced the bank was fined almost $350 million.

The central bank said JPMorgan was hit with $348.2 million in fines by a pair of U.S. bank regulators. The punishments are tied to a program to analyze firm and client trading for misconduct that has been deemed inadequate.

Despite Thursday's slide, shares of the bank have climbed more than 11% this year.

— Alex Harring, Reuters

The producer price index rose 0.6% in February. Core PPI, which strips out food and energy, gained 0.3%. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 0.3% for the headline number and a 0.2% advance for core PPI.

It marks the last major data release before the Fed's meeting on March 19-20.

— Fred Imbert