Asian markets are trading mixed as Fed officials appear divided on rate hikes ahead

Netflix’s “stellar loyalty metrics” provide confidence that users who share passwords will convert to full-fledged or ad-supported users, a Sensor Tower executive said.

“We see that Netflix continues to have the best loyalty and engagement among streamers, which should give the company some confidence that past users who have shared passwords
would convert to full or ad-supported users because of the Netflix content,”[ads1]; Anthony Bartolacci, senior vice president of mobile app data and insights provider Sensor Tower, said on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” Wednesday.

His comments come after Netflix posted mixed financial results and said it was pushing back its password-sharing rollout.

He added that Netflix has “really positive indicators” of customer engagement such as “10-15% better churn analytics value” and “better time spent” than competitors Hulu, Disney and Amazon Prime.

“I think these loyalty values ​​are really fantastic for Netflix. It’s kind of able to implement these restrictions on password sharing. There are definitely benefits from an overall profitability perspective,” he said.

– Sheila Chiang

Malaysia’s total trade in March came in at RM232.7 billion ($52.51 billion), 1.6% lower compared to the total value of RM236.5 billion seen in the same month last year.

While exports from the country fell 1.4% year-on-year to RM129.7 billion in March, less than the 3.5% drop expected by economists, imports were a surprise as they registered a 1.8% drop to RM103 billion, compared to 1.9% expected growth.

Malaysia said this was because imports of intermediate products fell 8.7% in March compared with a year ago.

The country’s trade balance climbed 0.2% year-on-year to a surplus of RM26.7 billion, higher than economists’ expectations of RM21.1 billion.

— Lim Hui Jie

Analysts at JPMorgan, Citi and UBS raised their full-year forecasts for China’s economy after it posted impressive first-quarter gross domestic product growth of 4.5% on Tuesday.

JPMorgan raised its 2023 growth outlook to 6.4%, up from a previous forecast of 6%, and said its latest quarterly report points to further growth ahead.

Citi economists also raised their full-year outlook to 6.1% from 5.7% year-on-year, saying China’s consumption recovery is “halfway”.

UBS also raised its forecast for the year from 5.4% to 5.7%, saying “given the stronger-than-expected recovery in Q1 2023, driven by both a robust recovery in consumption and property.”

– Jihye Lee

Taiwan’s Gogoro plans to integrate its interchange stations into virtual power plants for “stress management” for electric grids, according to its CEO.

The company is partnering with Enel X, an energy service provider, for the commercial deployment of 2,500 of its switching stations at 1,000 locations in Enel X’s virtual power plant.

“We’re basically helping the grid meet the stress that it has…so they don’t have to build the extra capacity to serve the balance and stabilize the grid,” Horace Luke, Gogoro’s CEO and founder, told CNBC’s ” Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday. “So really, it’s stress management for the web.”

Luke added that the company has plans to expand the service across Asia, and is running a pilot in India.

“We’re taking this model and applying it to every country we’re going to at this point,” he said.

– Sumathi Bala

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led losses in the Asia-Pacific region on Wednesday, dragged down by technology and property firms.

According to Refinitiv data, technology companies and real estate companies were the biggest losers on the index, with names such as Country Garden Holdings, Baidu and Tencent among the biggest losers.

However, the company that saw the biggest loss was carmaker Geely, which fell 3.95%.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will in a speech keep the economic priorities for the US on China, Reuters reported.

“During her remarks, Secretary Yellen will emphasize that in its bilateral relationship with China, the United States continues to have confidence in the enduring fundamental strength of our economy,” Reuters said, citing a statement from the Treasury Department.

This comes after Yellen said the US would resume economic talks with China “at an appropriate time” earlier this year as Beijing continues to sell its huge holdings of US Treasuries.

Yellen will deliver a speech at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies on Thursday, the report said.

– Jihye Lee

Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is set to become the first major bank to issue additional Tier 1 bonds since the banking crisis that hit Swiss lender Credit Suisse, Nikkei reported.

SMFG will issue 140 billion yen ($1 billion) of these bonds, commonly known as AT1 bonds. They are considered a relatively risky form of junior debt, therefore come with a higher yield and are often bought by institutional investors.

Confidence in AT1 bonds was shaken after Swiss authorities forced Credit Suisse to write down the value of AT1 bonds to zero as part of a government-orchestrated rescue of its bigger rival UBS.

Nikkei said the terms of SMFG’s offer would be determined on Wednesday, adding that the AT1 bonds would have a spread of 171 basis points over sovereign debt, representing a 33 basis point increase from the previous issuance in December.

SMFG stock traded up 0.25% on Wednesday.

— Lim Hui Jie

With a little more than half of the trading month completed, the Dow is up 2.1%.

April has historically been the best month of the year for the 30-stock index, with an average gain of 1.9% going back to 1950. By comparison, the Dow has added just 0.7% averaged over all months over that time period.

Previous years before the election are usually even better for April. The Dow has gained 3.9% when averaged each April in post-election years since 1950.

With the advance of 2.1%, the Dow has performed the best of the three major indexes so far this month. The S&P 500 has risen 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite has fallen 0.7%.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about why April is the best month for the blue-chip index here.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said Tuesday that he sees only a small recession hitting the U.S. as consumers remain in solid shape.

“Everything points to a relatively mild recession given the amount of stimulus that was paid to people and the money they have left over,” Moynihan said in the bank’s quarterly earnings report. “At the end of the day, we don’t see activity on the consumer side slowing down at a pace that suggests it, but we will see commercial customers being more cautious.”

Moynihan said Bank of America’s research team has been consistent in calling for a mild slowdown in light of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes. The bank forecasts annual GDP contraction in the range of half a percentage point to 1 percentage point over the next three quarters before returning to positive growth, he said.

– Yun Li

Semiconductor shares are rolling this year after a difficult 2022.

The iShares Semiconductor ETF, which follows the sector, is up approx. 22% so far this year – nearly three times the return of the S&P 500 this year.

Nvidia has undoubtedly been one of the sector’s biggest winners this year, but Bank of America is doubling down on a lesser-known chip stock.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Zavier Ong

Some chip stocks rose on Tuesday, after HSBC doubled down on Nvidia shares to buy from reduce.

The firm said that “Nvidia’s incredible AI pricing power (is) not fully priced in,” and that artificial intelligence will provide a significant boost to chip prices. The move lifted the shares around 3%.

Other semiconductor companies saw their shares rise after the upbeat upgrade. ON Semiconductor Corp and Advanced Micro Devices rose 1.3% and 0.8% respectively. Shares of Applied Materials also rose 0.45%.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway raised its holdings in five Japanese stocks – a good sign for investors in Japan, according to Credit Suisse.

In light of these developments, Credit Suisse analysts said in a note that they have been examining stocks in Japan that are “Buffett-style picks” — that is, they have characteristics typical of Buffett’s holdings.

Here are six of them.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan