Asia-Pacific Markets Climb After Tech Stocks Led Gains on Wall Street

This is CNBC Live Blog covering Asia-Pacific markets.

The Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on the Friday, as technology stocks led gains and continued to attract renewed interest.

Wall Street

Some have dismissed concerns about a new banking crisis.

Investors are also looking ahead to the

U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index

The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure is scheduled to be released later that day.

You can also find out more about the following:

Hang Seng index

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Tech Index rose 1.77%, the largest gain in the region. In mainland China the

Shenzhen Component

Gained 0.2%

Shanghai Composite

Inched up by 0.14%

The Japanese language is the

Nikkei 225

The Topix index rose by 1% and Tokyo's inflation rate fell to 0.97% from the recent peak of 4.3% in December. The Topix rose 1% and the Yen fell 0.97% as Tokyo's inflation print continued to show lower levels from its recent peak of 4.3% seen in December.

S&P/ASX 200

In Australia, the rate of growth was 0.7%.

South Korea

Kospi

Kosdaq also fell by a small amount, falling a mere 1.01%. Hang Seng futures pointed to an opening at 20,563 versus the

Index

The last time the's closed at 20 309.13

Overnight, in the U.S. weekly unemployment claims increased by 7,000, to 198,000. This adds to the hope that the Federal Reserve can slow down its tightening campaigns on a cooling labour market.

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S&P 500

The stock market rose by 0.57% and reached its highest level since the March 7 mid-session. The NASDAQ Composite Index (NASDAQ) increased by 0.57%, and reached its highest level since March 7 mid-session.

Nasdaq Composite

Also rose, and marked an improvement of over 4% in the month.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

Add 0.43%.

This report was contributed by Alex Harring and Brian Evans of CNBC.

SoftBank shares rise after the company announces it will book $2.7 billion in profit for Alibaba share transfers

SoftBank Group shares rose by 3.36% early in the morning after the company announced that it would realize a 359.6-billion-yen ($2.7-billion) gain from the sale of a stake in Alibaba to SoftBank Group’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Shiodome Project17 GK.

SoftBank announced its announcement after

Alibaba

It will be divided into six separate entities.

SoftBank stated that the move was made to "improve the management efficiency by centralizing the management of these shares in view of their potential future use for financing."

Jihye Le

Rio Tinto announces Peru copper joint venture

Australian listed shares of miner

Rio Tinto

The company's shares rose by 2%

To form a joint-venture with Canada's

First Quantum Minerals

The La Granja copper mine in Peru is being developed.

Rio acquired the La Granja Copper Project in Peru from the local authorities in 2006.

First Quantum said it would purchase a 55% share of the project at a cost of $105 million, and will commit to invest up to $546 in the joint venture.

Jihye Le

The Consumer Price Index in Tokyo rose 3.2% from December, but continues to cool.

Government data released on Friday showed that the consumer price index for Tokyo, excluding food, rose by 3.2% in march. This continues to show a slowing of inflation from its peak of 4.3% in December.

The reading was higher than expected at 3.1%, but lower than the previous reading of 3.3% from February. Tokyo's inflation rate was 3.3%

The Japanese yen fell 0.23% against the dollar to 132.95.

The national jobs-to applications ratio was 1.34 and broadly in line with expectations. However, the unemployment rate of 2.6% was higher than expected.

Jihye Le

The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure is due on Friday

The reading for February of the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index will be announced at 8:30 am. ET Friday.

Dow Jones reports that economists expect the core PCE to have increased by 4.7% in 12 months and 0.4% per month.

The PCE is preferred by the central bank to measure prices, even though the consumer price index (CPI) is what most people associate with inflation. St. Louis Fed president Jim

Bullard explains three reasons why.

The PCE is a more comprehensive measure of goods and services than the CPI. The PCE covers a wider range of goods and services than the CPI. He said that historical PCE data could be revised.

Darla Mercado

Biden calls on a range of banking reforms after SVB and Signature Bank failures

Joe Biden urges federal regulators

Thursday, a series of reforms will be adopted to protect the banking system

Following the failures at Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank.

The White House stated that the administration wanted regulators to take several steps to restore safeguards for banks whose assets ranged between $100 billion to $250 billion. "We must strengthen oversight and regulation over larger banks to ensure we do not find ourselves in this situation again," it said.

Fact sheet

Thursday.

Biden stated that all reforms could be achieved under the existing law.

Read the complete story to learn more

Here is a link to the article

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-- Tanaya Macheel

Oil prices increase by more than 1%

Prices of oil rose by more than 1% due to concerns about

The U.S. has reduced its stockpiles, and exports have been halted from one region of Iraq.

Brent crude futures

The price of a barrel rose by $1.05, or 1.3% to $79.33.

West Texas Intermediate crude

The price of the cheapest $74.33 rose by $1.36 cents or 1.9%.

According to Reuters, Iraq has had to halt crude exports of around 450,000 barrels a day, which is around half a percent of the global supply, from the Kurdistan Region.

Alex Harring

Wall Street's view on market volatility drops to a March low

Investors agree that the worst is over for the market.

Late Wednesday, the Cboe Volatility Index (Wall Street's preferred measure for fear in equity markets) dropped back to 19. The index began March at 19, and reached a high of 30 by the middle.

Futures indicate that Wall Street will open positively on Thursday morning.

Brian Evans