Japan CPI, Iran explosions, Israel strikes

Japanese automaker Nissan lowered its sales and profit outlook for its 2023 financial year ended March 31.

Nissan revealed in a filing it lowered its sales volume estimate to 3.44 million units, down from the 3.55 million forecast in February.

It also slashed its net revenue forecast to 12.6 trillion yen ($81.55 billion) from 13 trillion yen, and its operating profit estimate was cut to 530 billion yen from 620 billion yen.

Net profit is expected to come in at 370 billion yen for fiscal 2023, down from the 390 billion previously projected.

Nissan said the revision is “due to a decrease in sales volume, various cost reliefs made to suppliers such as inflation, and other factors.”

Shares of Asian shipping firms rallied after news that Israel carried out an operation in Iran, with explosions reportedly heard near the airport in Isfahan.

Japanese shippers Mitsui Osk Lines climbed 1.81%, while Kawasaki Kisen and Nippon Yusen were up 0.34% and 1.44%.

Hong Kong shipping firms also climbed, with Pacific Basin spiking 8.68%. Cosco Shipping Holdings was up over 4%, and international logistics firm OOIL, which owns Orient Overseas Container Line, climbed 4.5%.

Safe haven assets rose following reports of unconfirmed explosions in Iran, with the country’s Fars news agency reportedly saying that explosions were heard near the airport at the country’s central Isfahan city, but the reason was unknown.

Spot gold prices surged to a fresh all-time high of 2,411.09 per ounce, while the yen strengthened 0.45% to 153.93 against the U.S. dollar.

Prices of bitcoin fell 1.44% to $60,186, according to Coin Metrics data.

— Lim Hui Jie

Oil prices jumped more than 3% after unconfirmed reports of explosions near the Iranian city of Isfahan.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported that explosions were heard near the Isfahan airport, but emphasized that the reason was unknown.

Global benchmark Brent traded 2.86% higher at $89.60 a barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate rose 2.83% to $85.05 per barrel.

—Lee Ying Shan

Australia’s relationship with China continues to improve on the trade front, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers. 

Beijing ending its tariffs on Australian wine last month, is a good start in mending ties, he added.

“We’ve made some really good progress when it comes to stabilizing the Australian relationship with China,” Chalmers told CNBC’s Karen Tso at the IMF spring meetings in Washington on Thursday.

“When we came to office, there was about $20 billion a year in trade restrictions — is now I think from memory less than $1 billion. And wine has been the most recent progress that we’ve made,” he said.

“We want to make sure that our Chinese markets are reliable, we wanted to see these restrictions lifted. And we’re very pleased that they were.”

Chalmers added Australia will continue to work towards rolling back the remaining Chinese tariffs, such as those on lobster and beef.

— Sumathi Bala

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 slid as much as 3%, mainly dragged by electronics and manufacturing stocks.

The largest loser on the Nikkei was semiconductor equipment supplier Lasertec, which plunged 7.5%.

Other stocks on the top losers list included counterparts Tokyo Electron, as well as Screen Holdings, which also dropped more than 7%.

Japan’s headline inflation rate came in at 2.7% in March, easing from the 2.8% recorded in February.

Core inflation in the country stood at 2.6%, in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters and down from February’s 2.8%.

The so called “core-core” inflation metric used by the Bank of Japan came in at 2.9% from 3.2%, the first time that the index has fallen below 3% since November 2022.

— Lim Hui Jie

The recent stock selloff has led to a rise in some oversold signals, according to Chris Verrone, Strategas head of technical and macro research.

Around 30% is currently trading above its 50-day moving average, close to the 20% range “worth targeting in uptrends,” he wrote in a Thursday note.

“Yesterday’s pop in put/call ratios + the recent…