Asia-Pacific markets mostly rise as more data point to U.S. inflation cooling

Shares of Japanese retail giant Fast Retailing jumped over 9% in early trade on Friday, leading gains on the Nikkei 225.

On Thursday, the company reported a 20.4% increase in revenue to 1.47 trillion yen (11.1 billion), as well as a 4.5% rise in net profit to 153.3 billion yen for the six months ending February.

Fast Retailing also lifted its revenue estimates for the full financial year ending August, from 2.65 trillion yen to 2.68 trillion yen.

Japan’s government approved a plan for the country’s first casino to open in Osaka, Nikkei reported.

Shares of Orix traded 0.7% higher on Friday, having gained more than 4% in the past five sessions on its joint project with MGM Resorts to build an integrated resort.

Under the plan, the project aims to open a casino, conference center as well as other facilities in 2029 with roughly $13 billion in initial investment, the report said.

The government is slated to approve up to three integrated resort locations in addition to Osaka, and a bid by Nagasaki prefecture is currently under review, the report said.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore kept its monetary policy unchanged on Friday.

In its statement, the central bank said it would “maintain the prevailing rate of appreciation” of its Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate policy band.

The central bank manages monetary policy through exchange rate settings, rather than interest rates.

“There will be no change to its width and the level at which it is centred. This policy stance will continue to reduce imported inflation and help curb domestic cost pressures,” MAS said.

The central bank said it expects core inflation in Singapore to maintain elevated in the next few months and progressively ease in the second half of the year.

Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said its gross domestic product grew 0.1% in the first quarter of 2023 year-on-year, advance estimates showed.

That’s lower than the previous period’s growth of 2.1% and also lower than the Reuters poll of economists that had forecast growth of 0.6% compared to a year ago.

Compared to the previous quarter, the economy contracted by 0.7%.

— Jihye Lee

There’s a global investing opportunity in a corner of health care that is both “significant and underappreciated,” according to Barclays.

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— Weizhen Tan

Shares of a global electric charging firm are expected to surge by 118% over the next 12 months, according to Bank of America.

Bank of America expects the recent rise in the number of EVs in Europe to spur growth in demand for charging infrastructure and benefit this global stock’s bottom line.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Ganesh Rao

Singapore’s gross domestic product is expected to come in at 0.6% higher year-on-year for the first quarter of 2023, according to economists polled by Reuters.

However, GDP for the first quarter is forecasted to fall 0.2% compared to the previous quarter.

These estimates were lower than the results of the survey of professional forecasters the Monetary Authority of Singapore sent out in February, which forecasted a 1.3% year on year growth in the first quarter.

GDP for the whole of 2023 is expected to grow by 1.9% this year compared to 2022, according to the MAS survey.

— Lim Hui Jie

Excluding food and energy, the core wholesale prices reading showed a 0.1% decline month over month in March, or its lowest level since April 2020 when the core PPI showed a fall of 0.3%.

— Gina Francolla, Sarah Min

The producer price index, a gauge of wholesale inflation, fell 0.5% month over month in March — another sign that U.S. inflation may be cooling. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected PPI to remain unchanged from February.

Core PPI, which strips out food and energy prices, fell 0.1%, while economists had forecast a 0.2% increase.

— Fred Imbert

Initial claims came in at 239,000 for the week ending April 8, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones were forecasting initial claims to come in at 235,000.

That’s a rise from 228,000 claims in the previous week.

— Sarah Min

The price of ether climbed above $2,000 Thursday for the first time in eight months, after investors put uncertainty surrounding the long-awaited Shanghai upgrade behind them.

Ether advanced more than 5% to $2,007.55, according to Coin Metrics. Bitcoin gained more than 1% to reclaim the $30,000, after briefly falling below it on Wednesday.

After a two-year lock up period, Ethereum staking withdrawals were enabled by the Shanghai upgrade around 6:30 p.m. ET on April 12.

For more on how investors are reacting to Ethereum’s latest tech transition check out our full story here. Head to CNBC Pro for a deeper look at what Shanghai means for investors.

— Tanaya Macheel