Asia markets live updates: Japan CPI, Apple lawsuit

China’s onshore and offshore yuan slipped to its weakest levels against the greenback since November 2023, with both metrics breaching the 7.2 level.

The onshore yuan last traded at 7.225, while the offshore yuan stood at 7.254.

Reuters reported that China’s state banks were swapping dollars for yuan in a bid to arrest the slide.

— Lim Hui Jie, Reuters

China’s securities regulator has reportedly launched inspections into mutual fund companies, according to a Reuters report.

Reuters, citing local newspaper 21st Century Business Herald, said the inspections were conducted by local branches of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

These inspections covered daily operations, training, and Chinese Communist Party building, the newspaper said. It did not name the asset managers that were inspected.

Last week, China’s state run Global Times reported that the CSRC had vowed to build a “textbook-style” supervision model to regulate China’s $3.8 trillion mutual fund industry.

On Feb. 7, the CSRC appointed markets veteran Wu Qing — known as the “Broker Butcher” for his crackdown on traders — as chairman.

Apple suppliers in Asia largely fell after the U.S. Department of Justice sued Apple in an antitrust case on Thursday, saying that the iPhone maker has a monopoly over the phone market that harmed consumers, developers, and rival companies.

Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, which supplies the chips that power the iPhone, were down 0.77%.

South Korean electronics firms Samsung Electronics and LG Display lost 1.13% and 2.41% respectively. Both firms produce OLED screens for the iPhone.

However, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry in Taiwan, jumped 3.16%.

Taiwan’s central bank raised its main policy rate from 1.875% to 2%, its highest level since 2008, in a surprise move on Thursday, according to an official statement.

The Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) said “inflation has stayed at a relatively higher level since 2021 and that a proposed electricity rate hike might be implemented in April this year, inflation expectations might shift upwards.”

In a Reuters poll, 25 out of 26 economists said the central bank would keep the rate unchanged. 

“The decision reinforced CBC’s commitment in containing inflation,” Commerzbank said, while adding that it now expects the central bank to take a cautious approach.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

South Korea’s producer price index rose 1.5% year on year in February, higher than the 1.3% in January and at its fastest rate since April 2023.

On a month-on-month basis, the PPI rose 0.5%, faster than January’s 0.3% gain.

In South Korea, the PPI measures monthly variations in the prices of goods shipped by industrial producers within the domestic market.

— Lim Hui Jie

Japan’s headline inflation rate accelerated to 2.8% in February, climbing from the 2.2% in January and ending a streak of three straight months declines.

The core inflation rate — which strips out prices of fresh food — also climbed to 2.8% from 2%, in line with expectations from a Reuters poll of economists.

The so called “core-core” inflation metric, which strips out prices of both fresh food and energy and is watched by the Bank of Japan, came in at 3.2%, up from 2.6% in January.

— Lim Hui Jie

Reddit popped 38% on Thursday to open at $47 a share in its New York Stock Exchange debut.

The social media company began trading under the ticket symbol “RDDT” after pricing its IPO at $34 a share on Wednesday. It marks the first major social media company to go public since Pinterest in 2019.

— Samantha Subin, Jonathan Vanian