Asia markets largely rise after Wall Street rebounds on Friday

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon says it is time for South Korea to obtain its own nuclear weapons program.

“I have been strongly calling for South Korea’s readiness for the option of its own nuclear program, or an enhanced nuclear umbrella with the U.S. that is at the same level of NATO’s nuclear sharing,” Oh told CNBC’s Chery Kang.

“I think it’s time for that now,” he said, adding that the public opinion pushing for the nation to hold its own nukes is an idea that is “only natural,” pointing to North Korea’s frequent missile and nuke tests.

— Jihye Lee

Morgan Stanley strategist Joon Seok has made a bullish call on the South Korean market, putting a target of 2,750 on the Kospi in 2023, just over 9% from its current level of 2,520.29.

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk on the Road” in South Korea, Joon explains that there are three elements that investors have to look at: monetary policy, corporate earnings and the country’s capital reform initiative.

For monetary policy, the main question to ask would be when will rate cuts come, he said, given that the Bank of Korea was one of the first banks in Asia to pause its rate hikes.

As for corporate earnings, he says that in a multipolar world, Korean companies will have “more opportunities and risks,” noting that the firm is bullish on the tech materials and materials sector.

“We see that Korean tech as one of the big beneficiaries,” he told CNBC.

Joon added that South Korean companies have “preemptively adjusted” to potential problems ahead in the global supply chain, adding that they also “have a lot of intellectual property that actually helps us out.”

— Lim Hui Jie

Shares of Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings climbed as much as 0.94%, even after regulators raised the bank’s capital requirements.

On Friday, DBS suffered a widespread disruption to its digital banking and ATM services, the second such disruption in less than two months.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said DBS’ additional capital requirement is now a multiplier of 1.8 times to its risk weighted assets for operational risk — approximately 1.6 billion Singaporean dollars ($1.21 billion) in total additional regulatory capital.

In February 2022, MAS applied a multiplier of 1.5 times for another disruption in November 2021.

Japan’s service sector has expanded at a record pace in April, a private survey showed.

The au Jibun Bank Japan services purchasing managers’ index was at 55.4, higher than March’s figure of 54.9 and marking its fifth straight month in expansion territory.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector, while a figure below 50 indicates contraction.

Japan’s composite PMI in April, – which combines the manufacturing and services sector figures – came in unchanged at 52.9.

This marks the fastest pace of growth since June 2022, and the fourth consecutive month the composite PMI stayed above the 50 mark.

— Lim Hui Jie

The Bank of Japan’s board members discussed concerns over inflation rising more than expected, minutes from former governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s final meeting showed.

“Some members expressed the recognition that, while the current situation was a phase of closely monitoring whether a virtuous cycle between prices and wages would be achieved, due attention was warranted on the risk of prices rising more than expected,” the minutes said.

Members of the central bank’s board “shared the recognition that the rate of increase was projected to accelerate again moderately” after decelerating toward the middle of fiscal 2023.

They also warned against “hasty” changes to the central bank’s monetary policy, including its inflation target of 2%.

A member said, “the risk from a hasty policy change that could lead to missing a chance of achieving the price stability target should be considered as more significant than the risk from a delay in policy change,” minutes showed.

— Jihye Lee

China’s trade surplus is expected to have eased slightly from $88.2 billion in March to $74.3 billion in April, a Reuters poll of economists showed.

Exports are forecast to have grown 8% year-on-year after growing 14.8% in March, while imports are expected to remain unchanged after declining by 1.4% year-on-year in the previous month.

The softer trade data in April is likely to reflect “residual seasonality” after this year’s Lunar New Year, economists at Goldman Sachs said in a Monday note.

“We expect the dissipation of this seasonal bias to slow export growth in April. We expect import growth to decelerate on a month-over-month basis,” economists wrote, adding that holiday-related seasonal patterns are less obviously noted in imports.

The economy is also slated to report its inflation data later in the week.

— Jihye Lee

A number of economic data releases are expected next week for Asia-Pacific markets, including China’s inflation data, India’s industrial production and the Philippines’ trade balance.

On Monday, Taiwan reports its trade data. Economists at Citi expect that in April, Taiwan’s exports declined 21.4% year on year and imports fell 22.6% year on year.

“Non-tech exports to China are yet to recover (as indicated by trade data from China) and lower commodity prices will reduce the value of exports,” Citi economists wrote in a Thursday note.

China’s April trade data will also be released Tuesday along with Malaysia’s gross domestic product.

South Korea’s current account balance for March and unemployment rate for April are expected on Wednesday.

China’s producer price index and consumer price index are slated to be published on Thursday. For March, China’s CPI reading rose marginally by 0.7% year-on-year while the PPI marked a 2.5% year-on-year decline. The Philippines reports its gross domestic product for the first quarter on this day as well.

India’s industrial output for March will be published on Friday after marking year-on-year growth of 5.6% in February. Citi economists expect headline inflation to fall toward 4.8% year on year, marking the first print below 5% since November 2021.

— Jihye Lee

Global spending on education will be worth $8 trillion by 2030, Morgan Stanley predicts, saying there are opportunities in the market that are “just beginning to be enabled by technology.”

Morgan Stanley named seven stock picks to capitalize on the trend.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read about four of them here.

— Weizhen Tan

Large European companies reported bumper profits over the past two weeks.

However, according to strategists at Bank of America, there were more downgrades than upgrades by analysts for company earnings estimates.

The investment bank screened for European large-cap stocks that had an increase in net earnings per share revisions.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more about the 10 stocks they highlighted here.

— Ganesh Rao

Analysts on Wall Street view the latest results from Apple as yet another sign of the technology giant’s ongoing resilience and defensive positioning.

According to Evercore ISI’s Amit Daryanani, the findings underscore the company’s diverse revenue streams and show the iPhone’s “consumer staple nature.”

The stock rose 2.7% in premarket trading.

Read more on what analysts are saying after Apple’s results here.

WTI Crude (JUN) settled up 4.05% on Friday at $71.34 after hitting a high of $71.81 earlier on Friday. This was the highest level since May 2^nd, when WTI traded as high as $71.42

Meanwhile, WTI Crude is lower -7.09% week to date for the 3^rd straight negative week and the worst week since Mar. 17, when WTI Crude lost -12.96%

Brent settled up 3.86% at $75.30 hitting a high of $75.75. Brent closed down -5.33% WTD for the 3^rd straight negative week .

Natural Gas (JUN) settled up 1.71% at $2.137 after hitting a low of $2.031. Nat gas closed down -11.33% week to date for the first negative week in 4 and the worst week since Mar. 10, when natural gas lost -19.24% Natural gas is down 52.25% in 2023. 

— Hakyung Kim

The U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected 180,000 jobs were added. The report comes after the Federal Reserve hiked rates by 25 basis points Wednesday and signaled that a pause may be on the horizon.

— Jeff Cox, Fred Imbert

The regional bank stocks are extending their Friday rebound, led by PacWest with a gain of more than 70%.

The stock still has a long way to go to recover all of its losses from this year, however. In fact, PacWest shares are still trading below where the closed on Wednesday.