U.S. PPI, Japan shunto , China MLF

China’s central bank left a key lending rate unchanged for a seventh month when it rolled over maturing medium-term loans on Friday, according to an official release.

The People’s Bank of China kept the interest rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility loans at 2.50% — a rate that has been in place since mid-August — when rolling over 387 billion yuan ($54.2 billion) worth of loans of that tenure.

But this figure is lower than the 481 billion yuan worth of MLF loans set to expire this month. This means that PBOC withdrew a net 94 billion yuan from the banking system. Reuters reported that this is the first cash withdrawal through the liquidity instrument since November 2022.

— Clement Tan

The Bank of Japan is preparing to ending its negative interest wage policy, according to Japanese news outlet Jiji News.

The report said that this will take place at the BOJ monetary policy meeting on March 18-19, according to a Google translation.

Jiji also added that this was due to large companies handing out wage increases that were significantly higher than last year, “strengthening the [BOJ’s] view that the 2% price increase target is more likely to be achieved sustainably.” 

The final decision will be made after confirming the results of the first round of company responses on Friday from the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, commonly known as Rengo.

— Lim Hui Jie

There’s a whole world of stocks beyond flashy AI names such as Nvidia for investors looking to ride the latest tech wave, according to investment firm Fidelity International

The AI boom that started with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 has been a particular boon for Nvidia, whose graphics processing units are used to train and run the chatbot. The chip designer’s shares have skyrocketed almost 280% in the past year.

“Rather than focusing on so-called hot AI stocks – because names that are big today may not be the winners of tomorrow – investors may consider the many indirect beneficiaries, or diversified businesses, where the benefits of AI may not be immediately obvious to investors,” Fidelity said in its report.

The investment firm named several alternative sectors it expects to benefit from the AI boom.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Sheila Chiang

Semiconductor stocks got a lift from the rising tide of artificial intelligence.

But the divergence between semiconductor stocks that are doing well and those that aren’t is becoming starker, UBS said.

Here’s its list of most and least preferred names.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Crude oil futures rose on Thursday, adding to the previous session’s gains as the International Energy Agency now forecasts a supply deficit for 2024.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for April rose $1.54, or 1.93%, to settle at $81.26 a barrel in U.S. crude’s highest close since Nov. 2, 2023. The Brent contract for May added $1.27, or 1.51%, to $85.30 a barrel.

The move came after the IEA forecast a slight supply deficit for the year rather than a surplus, as the organization assumes OPEC+ will keep its production cuts in place through 2024. The cartel’s cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day are officially in place through at least the second quarter.

JPMorgan & Chase slipped more than 1% Thursday after the Federal Reserve announced the bank was fined almost $350 million.

The central bank said JPMorgan was hit with $348.2 million in fines by a pair of U.S. bank regulators. The punishments are tied to a program to analyze firm and client trading for misconduct that has been deemed inadequate.

Despite Thursday’s slide, shares of the bank have climbed more than 11% this year.

— Alex Harring, Reuters

The producer price index rose 0.6% in February. Core PPI, which strips out food and energy, gained 0.3%. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 0.3% for the headline number and a 0.2% advance for core PPI.

It marks the last major data release before the Fed’s meeting on March 19-20.

— Fred Imbert