Asia markets rise as Wall Street lifted by hopes of debt ceiling deal

The central bank of the Philippines held its benchmark policy rate at 6.25%, marking the first pause since May 2022, when it first hiked rates to combat inflation by 25 basis points.

Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas raised rates for nine consecutive times from 2.0% to the current rate of 6.25% over a span of a year.

The Philippine peso traded at 55.980 against the U.S. dollar, overall unchanged following the decision which was widely expected by economists surveyed by Reuters.

–Jihye Lee

Japanese conglomerate Sony Group is mulling a partial spin off of its financial business in the next two to three years.

Sony said that this will be on the consideration that the group will continue to own a portion - slightly less than 20%, Sony says of the spin off.

This is "so that the financial services business can continue to utilize the Sony brand, and continue to generate synergies with Sony Group companies after the execution of the spin-off."

The financial unit reported a revenue of 1.45 trillion yen ($10.74 billion) in the financial year ended March, while operating profit came in at 223.9 billion yen for the full year.

Shares of Sony closed 6.4% higher on Thursday.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japanese conglomerate Sony Group is mulling a partial spin off of its financial business in the next two to three years.

Sony said that this will be on the consideration that the group will continue to own a portion - slightly less than 20%, Sony says of the spin off.

This is "so that the financial services business can continue to utilize the Sony brand, and continue to generate synergies with Sony Group companies after the execution of the spin-off."

The financial unit reported a revenue of 1.45 trillion yen ($10.74 billion) in the financial year ended March, while operating profit came in at 223.9 billion yen for the full year.

Shares of Sony closed 6.4% higher on Thursday.

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent in Hong Kong have slid over 3% even as the company reported an 11% jump in quarterly revenue to 150 billion Chinese yuan ($21.4 billion)

This marked its fastest growth in more than a year, as the company saw a big rebound in payment volumes, ad sales, and gaming.

Net profit climbed 10% to 25.8 billion yuan, lower than than the 31 billion yuan expected by economists polled by Reuters.

— Lim Hui Jie, Ryan Browne

Competition in China's electric vehicle market has "just begun," says consulting firm Sino Auto Insights.

The EV market in China has been roiled by Tesla's aggressive price cuts and the country's government ending subsidies for electric car buyers. 

But Sino Auto Insights' managing director, Tu Le, is still bullish on EV giant Tesla and its Chinese counterpart BYD.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Lee Ying Shan

Japanese markets extended their winning streak on Thursday, with the Nikkei 225 leading gains in the region and continuing to trade above the 30,000 mark.

The Topix maintained levels not seen since August 1990.

Energy and technology stocks led the Topix, with its top gainers being Sony and electronics company Tokyo Electron.

Meanwhile, Factset revealed that electronics stocks powered the Nikkei, with the top gainer on the index being semiconductor test equipment manufacturer Advantest, followed by Tokyo Electron.

— Lim Hui Jie

Nomura downgraded its China full-year growth forecast from 5.9% to 5.5%, according to a Wednesday note.

"China's post-Covid recovery has been rapidly losing steam," Nomura's Ting Lu wrote, noting that the latest activity data and high frequency data in May show the momentum has been losing steam "due partly to weak confidence among consumers and business investors."

"As disappointment kicks in, we see a rising risk of slower activity growth, rising unemployment, persistent disinflation, falling market interest rates, and a weaker currency," he wrote.

Nomura added that it is also cutting its 2024 full-year gross domestic product forecast for China from 4.4% to 4.2%. It now expects the second quarter's GDP to grow 7.8%, third quarter to grow 4.9%, and the final quarter of the year to grow 5.0%.

– Jihye Lee

Japan's trade deficit has narrowed by almost half in April, falling to 432.41 billion from 854.93 billion a year ago.

Most notably, imports fell by 2.3% year on year, more than the 0.3% expected by economists polled by Reuters.

Exports came in largely in line with expectations, rising 2.6% year-on-year compared to the 3% expected.

— Lim Hui Jie

New Zealand's producer price index rose by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the final quarter of 2022, government data showed.

Input producer price index rose 0.2% – with the farm expenses price index rising0.7% and capital goods price index climbing 1%.

The New Zealand dollar slightly strengthened to 0.6242 against the U.S. dollar.

– Jihye Lee

Nvidia, the company behind the most powerful chips used to enable artificial intelligence (A.I.), has the potential to increase its stock value by five times within the next ten years, according to investor and fund manager Philip Ripman.

Investor enthusiasm for Nvidia is centered around its business model of selling high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) essential for running the complex algorithms behind artificial intelligence technologies. As A.I. has become increasingly important across industries, demand for GPUs has surged.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more Ripman's views on Nvidia here.

— Ganesh Rao

The year is nearing its halfway mark, and global stocks have been doing much better than they had in volatile 2022.

Many stocks have soared and beaten the overall market, but there's still more room for investor bullishness.

CNBC Pro screened for stocks that are beating the market nearly halfway into the year — and that analysts love. One's a Buffett favorite, and another two are top picks by BofA and Citi.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Montana became the first U.S. state to impose a complete ban on video app TikTok.

Montana governor Greg Gianforte said in a release, "The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented."

"Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans' private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party," he wrote.

The governor also directed the state's chief information officer and executive agency directors to "prohibit the use of all social media applications tied to foreign adversaries on state equipment and for state business," the release added.

TikTok called the move "a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana," adding that the ban is "unlawful."

"We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana," TikTok said in a statement.

– Jihye Lee

The Federal Reserve's rate hike cycle may be coming to a pause — and Bank of America thinks some smaller names could outperform.

The central bank hinted in its May post-meeting statement that it may not raise rates beyond the current range of 5% to 5.25%. Bank of America said its economists expect cooling inflation and a mild recession in the coming months following the pause in tightening monetary policy. 

If this is the case and the Fed does end its rate-hiking campaign, investors may want to consider investing in some small-cap stocks that have done well historically.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read about which stocks Bank of America thinks will outperform here.

— Hakyung Kim

Tech stocks climbed higher during Wednesday's rally. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) rose 1.2%, hitting a 52-week high. It's the third straight session that the fund reached that milestone.

The tech ETD is up 2% this month, pushing its 2023 gains to nearly 24%.

— Yun Li

Investors tilted away from defensive stocks on Wednesday. Of the 11 S&P 500 sectors, only health care, consumer staples and utilities were trading in negative territory during midday trading.

Health care stocks slid 0.9%, while utilities stocks were down 0.5%. Consumer staples were down by 0.4%.

— Sarah Min

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed optimism Wednesday that even though negotiations on the debt ceiling face obstacles, he does not foresee a default.

"I think at the end of the day we do not have a debt default," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "I think we finally got the president to agree to negotiate."

The comments come a day after President Joe Biden met with top congressional leaders to try to find a way around the debt impasse. McCarthy said the talks resulted in a "structure" to find a solution while noting that the deadline remains "tight" as Republicans look for spending cuts and Democrats seek a clean bill not tied to conditions.

"The comes a moment in time when you hit the wall," McCarthy said. "You can't continue down this trajectory if you want to continue to be the strongest nation in the world."

—Jeff Cox