Shares in Hong Kong, Australia plummet as Asia continues sell-off on Wall Street; Bank of Japan holds rates

The Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged, broadly in line with expectations.

The central bank kept its negative rate at -0.1% and reiterated its target to keep the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond around 0%.

“The Japanese economy, despite being impacted by factors such as high commodity prices, has strengthened as the resumption of economic activity progresses,” the Bank of Japan said in its policy statement Friday, concluding Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s last meeting in office.

— Jihye Lee

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index suffered sharp losses Friday morning, led by consumer cyclicals falling 3.77%, healthcare stocks down nearly 3% and technology stocks down 1.56%.

JD.com was down 11.04%, while Geely Automobile lost 5.49%. BYD lost 5.2% and Baidu lost 4.94%.

Real estate stocks like Country Garden also saw huge losses of 2.73%.

Alibaba was one of the leading bottom movers with a drop of 2.96%.

Japan approved the appointment of Kazuo Ueda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan, Kyodo reported.

The approval by the House of Councilors forms the basis for the government to formally appoint Ueda, Kyodo reported.

The parliament also approved Shinichi Uchida and Ryozo Himino as the next deputy governors of the Bank of Japan, Kyodo said.

Yields on 10-year Japanese government bonds fell slightly to the upper limit of the central bank’s tolerance margin of 0.5%.

UBS’s equity strategist Gerry Fowler says interest rate hikes in Europe should boost stock prices in one sector by 20%.

Fowler also revealed that several stocks in the industry were trading below an overlooked metric, as “no one has really acknowledged this phenomenon,” despite a “structurally higher” earnings potential.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about that sector here.

— Ganesha Rao

Bond yields are rising as markets are unnerved by renewed fears that the US Federal Reserve will keep interest rates high for longer. The 2-year Treasury bond hit 5% earlier this week for the first time since 2007

As prices rise, it becomes more difficult to find stocks that can compete on a yield basis, but there are some out there. CNBC Pro used FactSet to screen for global stocks on the MSCI World index with returns above 5%.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

The Bank of Japan is unlikely to change its monetary policy at the upcoming meeting, according to a Reuters poll.

The central is expected to maintain its ultra-easing stance and keep its benchmark rate at -0.1% during the two-day meeting that would mark Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s last meeting before his term ends in April.

Goldman Sachs cited three key drivers for Kuroda not to make changes: the meeting’s approach to the end of the fiscal year, ongoing wage negotiations, and “Kuroda’s long-held view that premature rate hikes have slowed Japan’s exit from deflation.”

Goldman analysts wrote, “It still needs some attention,” adding that they think “caution is warranted should Governor Kuroda take responsibility for cleaning up his legacy Yield Curve Control policies.”

Kazuo Ueda has been nominated to become the next BOJ governor.

— Lee Ying Shan

Japanese household spending fell 0.3% year on year in January, government data showed.

That’s further below expectations from economists polled by Reuters, who see a 0.1% decline for the month compared to a year ago. Household spending fell by 1.3% in December.

— Jihye Lee

South Korea’s current account balance returned to a $4.52 billion deficit in January, data from the Bank of Korea showed.

This comes after the print saw a $2.68 billion current account surplus in December.

The January report marks the first time since August 2022 that South Korea’s current account balance fell into a deficit area.

The Korean won stood at 1,323.92 against the US dollar.

It’s not just regional and technology-focused banks under pressure on Thursday.

The four largest US banks – JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup – all underperformed the broader market. Shares of Wells Fargo and Bank of America are down more than 6%.

Combined, the declines represent a loss of about $56 billion in market value for the day for the four banks.

—Jesse Pond, Christopher Hayes

Shares plummeted Thursday, accelerating losses in the last hour of trading.

The S&P 500 fell 1.85% to finish at 3,918.32, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 543.54 points or 1.66% to settle at 32,254.86. The Nasdaq Composite lost 2.05% to close at 11,338.35.

— Samantha Subin

Bank of America analyst Brad Lin raised his price target for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s US-listed shares from $105 to $115. The new target implies an increase of 26.6% from Wednesday’s close.

“Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is one of the major beneficiaries and one of our 20 global AI stock picks due to the rising and broadening applications of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, led by ChatGPT,” wrote Lin.

“We think the generative AI should act as one of the biggest drivers, thanks to the substantial computational requirements for running and training the AI ​​models.”

— Sarah Min

Initial job claims reached 211,000 for the week ending March 4, the highest level for the year and since December 24.

Persistent claims also hit a yearly high, reaching 1.718 million for the week of Feb. 25. That was also the highest level dating back to December 17.

— Samantha Subin, Gina Francolla