Japan and China stocks rise, while most Asia-Pacific markets are closed

Shares of state-owned property developer China Vanke fell 2.3% in early trading after the company reported a drop in full-year profit and revenue.

The company reported net profit of 12.16 billion yuan ($1.69 billion), down 46.4% from a year ago. Full-year revenue stood at 465.74 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.6%.

Reuters reported Chief Executive Officer Zhu Jiusheng said in an earnings conference that the company aims to reduce interest-bearing debt by 100 billion yuan in the next two years.

Chinese regulators met with large banks to discuss boosting financing support for China Vanke, Reuters reported earlier this month.

China’s broader CSI 300 index rose 0.2%.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

The overall consumer price index for Tokyo rose 2.6% in March year-on-year, official data showed. Inflation in Japan’s capital city remained above the Bank of Japan’s target of 2%.

Tokyo’s core CPI, which excludes fresh food but includes oil products, rose 2.4% year-over-year, in line with a 2.4% rise predicted in a Reuters poll of economists.

Consumer prices minus food and energy rose 2.9% year-on-year in March, after a 3.1% rise in February.

The Japanese yen traded at 151.35 against the U.S. dollar. The currency recently hit 34-year lows against the greenback at 151.97.

Official data showed South Korea’s retail sales dropped in February, while industrial production rose.

Retail sales fell 3.1% from the prior month, the biggest fall since July. This follows a 1% rise in January.

February industrial production index rose 3.1% on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the fastest rise since August. This comes after a 1.5% fall in January.

South Korea stocks were subdued in early trading on Friday.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a fresh record on Thursday.

The broader market index rose 0.11% to settle at 5,254.35, cinching its best first-quarter since 2019. The 30-stock Dow rose 47.29 points, or 0.12% and settled at 39,807.37, bringing it a hair’s breadth away from the 40,000 level. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, slipped 0.12% to finish at 16,379.46.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Oil prices rose more than $1 on Thursday and are on track for a third monthly gain.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for May gained $1.82, or 2.24%, to settle at $83.17 a barrel. The Brent contract for May, which expired Thursday, added $1.39, or 1.61%, to settle at $87.48 a barrel.

U.S. crude has risen 6.27% for the month while the global benchmark is up 4.62%.

Prices are rising on strong demand and lower supply. Morgan Stanley forecast a 400,000 barrels per day deficit in the second quarter and an 800,000 barrels per day deficit in the third quarter.

— Spencer Kimball

Retail investors piled into stocks as the end of the first quarter neared, snapping up $3.5 billion in equities this past week, according to JPMorgan.

“At the single stock level, retail traders showed the strongest buying impulse in over a year,” Peng Cheng, the firm’s head of big data and artificial intelligence strategies, wrote in a note Wednesday.

“They reversed their previous bearish stance and bought NVDA aggressively (+$1.2B),” he added.

Nvidia, Tesla and Advanced Micro Devices received the largest retail inflows.

— Michelle Fox

All sectors in the S&P 500 are set to end March in positive territory.

Energy stocks were the clear outperformer this month for the S&P 500. The sector, up nearly 10% this month, was next followed by the materials and utilities sectors, having respectively gained 6% and 5.9%.

The worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 was consumer discretionary names, down nearly 1% this month.

— Lisa Kailai Han