Asia markets mixed as Wall Street’s earnings season continues

China’s central bank left its 1-year medium-term lending facility operation unchanged at 2.75%.

The People’s Bank of China conducted liquidity injections of 170 billion yuan, smaller than market consensus of 220 billion yuan and higher than the maturity amount of 150 billion yuan.

The moves “signal that the PBOC is not particularly worried about the recovery of the Chinese economy,” ING’s greater China chief economist Iris Pang said in a note.

— Jihye Lee

Singapore’s March non-oil domestic exports fell 8.3% year-on-year, marking its sixth straight month of decline.

However, the decline was smaller than February’s 15.8% drop, and also below economists expectation of a 20.8% fall.

Government data revealed non-oil domestic exports to Singapore’s top markets as a whole declined in March, except to the U.S. and South Korea.

Non-oil domestic exports to Taiwan declined the most in March, falling 30.4% compared to last year, followed by Malaysia at a 23.1% drop, and China was down 14.1%.

— Lim Hui Jie

China’s new home prices in March fell 0.8% year-on-year, according to Refinitiv’s calculations of the National Bureau of Statistics’ house price data of 70 cities released on Saturday.

Home prices fell the least since June 2022, when the reading fell 0.5% year-on-year.

March’s reading marks a 0.5% month-on-month rise in comparison to a 0.3% rise in February, marking the fastest pace of gains in 21 months, according to Reuters.

“We expect more housing easing in the months ahead, but maintain our view that the property sector recovery should be gradual and bumpy,” Goldman Sachs economists said in a weekend note, citing demographic trends and tight financing conditions for developers.

— Jihye Lee

The International Monetary Fund sees scope for Bank of Japan to tweak its bond yield target this year on rising prospects the country could see durable wage increases, according to Reuters.

IMF’s Japan mission chief Ranil Salgado noted Japan’s wage dynamics were ”changing”, following talks between big firms and unions.

He also highlighted the BOJ should maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy, echoing governor Kazuo Ueda’s position. This is because, he added, a sustainable 2% inflation target is not yet in sight.

— Lim Hui Jie

U.S. regional banks largely sold off after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March.

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— Weizhen Tan

While the latest batch of economic data shows positive developments on the inflation front, Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said the central bank’s job is not over just yet.

“When you see the producer prices coming in as big negative numbers and you see these negatives on retail sales, you don’t want to overreact to short-run news, but it feels like that’s moving in the right direction,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday to Steve Liesman.

Goolsbee, who succeeded Charles Evans in the president role earlier this year, is a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the federal funds rate.

— Alex Harring

Stocks are climbing, and tech stocks in particular have been a bright spot despite the market volatility brought on by the banking crisis, with the Nasdaq up around 16% so far this year — beating the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

But investors still have to contend with uncertainty as analysts warn of a recession this year.

But there’s opportunity in the chaos, with a number of companies trading at steeper discounts on a price-to-earnings basis than they have in recent history. CNBC Pro screened for such stocks with big upside.

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— Weizhen Tan

Citigroup shares gained more than 2% in premarket trading as it too appeared to top expectations from Wall Street on Friday.

The bank reported $21.45 billion in revenue versus $19.986 billion expected, according to analysts polled by Refinitiv.

The bank’s $4.6 billion in net income for the period compares to $4.3 billion in the same period last year

Citigroup reported earnings of $2.19 per share for the quarter, while it was not clear how comparable that number is to estimates, it appeared to be a well above expectations.

JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are all up in the premarket after reporting generally better-than-expected results.

-John Melloy, Jesse Pound

JPMorgan Chase shares jumped in premarket trading after the bank reported record revenue for the first quarter that was above expectations. Earnings per share also beat Wall Street’s estimates.

JPMorgan reported adjusted earnings of $4.32 per share for the first quarter vs. a $3.41 estimate from analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue for the first quarter was a record $39.34 billion vs. a $36.19 billion consensus estimate from Refinitiv.

“The U.S. economy continues to be on generally healthy footings—consumers are still spending and have strong balance sheets, and businesses are in good shape,” stated CEO Jamie Dimon in the earnings filing. “However, the storm clouds that we have been monitoring for the past year remain on the horizon, and the banking industry turmoil adds to these risks.”

-John Melloy, Hugh Son

Almost six times as many companies in the S&P 500 report latest quarter earnings next week as released results in the week just ended (10).

Although bank and financial companies results are sprinkled throughout the week (including a lot of regional banks, from MTB to CFG to CMA), the first of the big technology numbers are released next Wednesday LRCX TSLA FFIV IBM).

Earnings next week:

Monday SCHW STT JBHT MTB

Tuesday LMT BK JNJ GS PLD UAL NFLX OMC

Wednesday CFG GL USB ELV SYF TRV BKR NDAQ ABT MS DFS EFX LRCX LVS TSLA ZION FFIV KMI IBM CCI STLD

Thursday CMA T TFC ALK DHI FITB KEY SNA GPC AXP HBAN MMC PM POOL UNP NUE PPG STX CSX WRB ISRG

Friday FCX RF PG SLB

— Scott Schnipper