Asian markets largely fall as Fed warns of recession risks triggered by banking crisis

Apple is reportedly in talks with suppliers to produce MacBooks in Thailand, as the US tech giant seeks to expand its manufacturing operations outside of China, according to the Nikkei, citing sources.

The Apple suppliers involved in the talks already have manufacturing complexes in Thailand for other customers, the report said, and are discussing the possible assembly and production of components and modules for MacBooks.

Apple is also set to open its first brick-and-mortar stores in India next week, highlighting the tech firm̵[ads1]7;s continued efforts to reduce its reliance on China.

Fragility in China was exposed last year, after production was disrupted by a COVID-19 outbreak and worker protests at the world’s largest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China, run by Taiwanese firm Foxconn.

– Sumathi Bala

Australia’s unemployment rate for March came in at 3.5%, unchanged from February and lower than the 3.6% economists expected.

In March, the country’s statistics agency revealed that employment rose by 31,700 people to 13.88 million people, a slight increase of 0.2%.

The employment rate is one of the key metrics the Reserve Bank of Australia will watch to decide whether to resume interest rate hikes, after stalling at 3.6% in March.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australian miner BHP has received shareholder approval for its A$9.6 billion ($6.4 billion) takeover of nickel and copper miner Oz Minerals.

At a shareholder meeting, 78.93% of the proxy votes cast by shareholders voted for the transaction.

BHP offered a consideration of A$28.25 per share for the takeover, consisting of A$26.50 paid by BHP in cash and A$1.75 paid by Oz Minerals as a special dividend.

Should the takeover receive approval from the Federal Court of Australia on 17 April, the shares in Oz Minerals will be delisted on 18 April.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba fell 3.9% in early trade Thursday, tracking losses in the U.S.-listed stock.

Overnight, Alibaba’s US-listed shares fell nearly 3% in after-market trading after regulatory filings revealed that SoftBank has sold the majority of its stake in the company.

An analysis of company filings by the Financial Times revealed that SoftBank has sold about $7.2 billion worth of shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant via prepaid futures contracts.

Because of the sale, the report noted that SoftBank will now only maintain a 3.8% stake in Alibaba, which has a market capitalization of over nearly $250 billion.

— Lim Hui Jie, Jonathan Vanian

Embattled property developer Sunac China plunged 55% at the Hong Kong open after the company resumed trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange for the first time in a year.

Sunac China said in a request for resumption of trading earlier this week that it was implementing a restructuring plan.

Trading was suspended for the company’s shares along with a number of Chinese developers who defaulted on debt repayments last year.

Sunac China reached an agreement to restructure $9 billion of its debt by converting into new notes and convertible bonds backed by the Hong Kong shares as well as shares in its unit Sunac Services.

The Philippines’ central bank signaled it could halt interest rate hikes at its meeting next month.

In a briefing streamed on Facebook, Governor Felipe Medalla said “we will probably pause in the next meeting because the inflation prints are very good.”

The country has raised interest rates at the fastest pace in Asia, with rates rising 425 basis points since May 2021.

The current policy rate is at 6.25%, after raising rates by 25 basis points in March.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australia’s unemployment rate is expected to rise to 3.6% in March, ticking up from 3.5% in February, according to a Reuters poll.

The labor participation rate in March is expected to remain unchanged at 66.6%, the same as a month ago.

Total employment figures are set to plunge to a third of what was seen in February, with economists expecting to see the reading of 20,000 employed compared to February’s 64,600.

The Australian dollar strengthened slightly to 0.6691 against the US dollar ahead of the release.

– Jihye Lee

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda reiterated that inflation in Japan will fall below the central bank’s 2% target by mid-year and stressed that the BOJ will continue monetary policy easing until price stability is achieved, Nikkei reported.

Ueda spoke at the G7 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Washington.

He added that the risk of inflation falling below the target is greater than too great a problem as a result of an overshoot, and emphasizes the need to conduct policy accordingly.

Ueda’s words were similar to the message delivered in his opening speech when he emphasized his position to maintain the BOJ’s yield curve management policy and its negative policy rates.

– Jihye Lee

The China Internet ETF, or KWEB, fell more than 3% on Wall Street overnight and is on pace for its seventh day of declines.

Wednesday’s session also marked the ETF’s worst day in more than a month, as KWEB lost about 5.5% on March 9.

Weibo, JD.com and Autohome led decliners, with all names seeing month-to-date declines of about 11%.

— Gina Francolla, Jihye Lee

Exports in China are expected to see a year-on-year decline of 7%, steeper than the 6.8% seen in February, according to economists polled by Reuters.

Imports are expected to fall 5%, less than the 10.2% seen last month, a Reuters poll showed.

In US dollar terms, China’s trade balance is expected to reach a surplus of more than $39 billion after seeing a surplus of $116 billion last month.

The offshore Chinese yuan strengthened slightly to 6.8790 against the US dollar in Asian morning.

– Jihye Lee

Despite the benefits of large deposit flows and strong deposit growth in a low-growth environment, State Bank of India (SBI) has seen its share price fall so far this year due to its controversial exposure to Adani.

Meanwhile, HDFC Bank shares are up 4% this year.

However, only one of the two banks has a buy rating from almost all analysts.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

– Ganesh Rao

South Korea saw export and import prices fall further in March.

Export prices fell 6.4% for the month after seeing a 2.7% decline the previous month. Export prices fell for seven consecutive months and lost the most since October 2020.

Import prices saw a 6.9% decline in March, falling more steeply than February’s 0.5% decline, public data showed. It marked 11 consecutive months of declines in import prices and the biggest fall since January 2021.

– Jihye Lee

Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Slimmon expects an economic downturn in the US to happen later than many have predicted.

The senior portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management names stocks to buy and avoid in the face of market uncertainty.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said that while peak inflation may be behind the U.S., “we still have a way to go.”

He pointed to continued high inflation in shelter and services. “If you want to get to 2% [inflation]I think we’re still a long way from there.”

— Fred Imbert

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said he doesn’t think he can run the Federal Reserve as well as Jerome Powell. The central bank governor’s aggressive rate hike campaign has drawn criticism from those who say Powell has waited too long to target rising inflation.

“You have to act on insufficient information, and you have an ultimate responsibility to the American public,” Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“It doesn’t mean you can stop recessions, it doesn’t mean you can turn bad loans into good loans or anything else. But it means you have to keep the system going. And the system came close to stopping,” he added.

He added: “Thank you, you know, Jay Powell was there” in March 2020.

—Sarah Min, Alex Harring

Stocks rose at the open on Wednesday, as traders digested the latest US consumer price index data.

The Dow gained more than 100 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained 0.5% and 0.8%, respectively.

— Fred Imbert