Asia Markets Mostly Rise as Investors Come Back From Long Weekend

This is CNBC’s live blog that covers Asia-Pacific markets.

Asia-Pacific markets were generally higher Monday after some investors returned from a long weekend.

Japan's

Nikkei 225

The Topix saw a 0.65% increase in openings, while the Topix saw a 0.8% gain. South Korea's

Kospi

The Kosdaq index was 0.2% higher at 0.41%, while it was 0.41% lower at 0.2%.

Due to a four-day holiday, the Australian and Hong Kong markets were closed from Monday to Monday.

India's March fiscal deficit numbers, along with March trade data will be released. Meanwhile, February retail sales figures for Indonesia will be available.

The U.S. stocks had a brief trading week last Thursday, with all three major indexes recording gains.

The

S&P 500

The tech-heavy population saw a rise of 0.36%

Nasdaq Composite

Outperformed by a gain of 0.76%, thanks to a rise in Alphabet shares and Microsoft shares.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

After losing over 150 points at the session low, it gained marginally 2.57 point to 33.485.29.

This report was contributed by Alex Harring and Yun Li of CNBC

Samsung Electronics' Q1 operating profit falls 96%

Samsung Electronics estimated

According to company's latest report, its first quarter operating profit was likely to have fallen to 600 billion won ($455 millions).

Guidance for earnings

Released Friday.

This is a 95.7% drop from the 14.12 trillion won operating profit reported in the

same quarter in 2022

.

Samsung released that revenue is expected to fall nearly 20% from last year's 63 trillion won.

Following the release of company estimates, shares in Samsung Electronics rose by 3.2% to the open.

-- Jihye Le

Bank of Korea to pause for the second time in April: Reuters

According to Reuters surveys of economists, the Bank of Korea will likely keep its benchmark interest rate at 3.5% in its monetary policy decision Tuesday.

DBS was the only exception in the survey. He expects that the BOK will raise rates 25 basis points to 3.755%.

In February, the South Korean central bank paused tightening after seven rate increases in succession since March 2022.

According to Reuters, the central bank is expected to reduce rates by 50 basis points during the first quarter 2024 and further in the third quarter and fourth quarters of next year.

-- Jihye Le

Expect the worst earnings decline since Q3 2020

Next week will see the first quarter earnings season begin with major banks like JPMorgan, Citigroup and Citigroup reporting. According to Goldman Sachs, consensus expectations suggest that the S&P 500 will see its earnings per share fall by 7% over the year. This is the largest drop since the third quarter 2020. The bank also stated that it will mark a "significant decline" in earnings per share from the 1% drop in the previous quarter.

-- Yun Li

Fed's Bullard believes inflation will remain sticky

James Bullard, President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, stated Thursday that he does not see inflationary pressures diminishing anytime soon.

There's still a lot of work to do and I believe inflation will be stubborn going forward. It's going be hard to bring inflation down to the 2% target. So we'll have to keep at it to ensure inflation drops," Bullard stated, according to Reuters.

Next month's Fed meeting is set. Traders are pricing in a close 50-50 chance for another rate increase.

Fred Imbert

Five days in succession, the two-year Treasury yield has fallen

The Treasury yield on two-year bonds, which is the most sensitive to monetary policies, fell 3 basis points to 3.733% on Thursday. Five sessions in succession have seen the short-term rate fall.

According to FedWatch, the market is divided on whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates or pause rate hikes by 25 basis points.

-- Yun Li

Holiday season: Low trading volume

Due to the holiday, trading volume was low on Thursday. Only 38 million shares were remaining as of 02:20 ET

SPDR S&P 500 ETF

It was much lower than the 30-day average turnover of more than 103 million shares.

-- Yun Li