Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is heading to Ukraine, NHK reported, citing government officials.

Kishida has left India after meeting his counterpart Narendra Modi, the report said.

NHK said the Japanese prime minister is expected to hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later in the day.

Last month, Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan told CNBC he was optimistic Kishida would visit Ukraine before hosting the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima in May.

– Jihye Lee

South Korea’s producer prices index for February rose 4.8% year-on-year, lower than January’s figure of 5.1%.

This puts the index at 120.42, higher than the 120.25 in January.

The PPI measures the average movements of prices received by domestic producers for goods and services sold.

The Korean won weakened by 0.25% after the announcement to trade at 1,307.43 per dollar.

— Lim Hui Jie

New Zealand saw its trade deficit for February narrow to NZ$714 million ($445 million), marginally lower than the NZ$715 million recorded in the same period a year ago.

Data from the country’s statistics department showed that goods exports rose 0.8% year on year to NZ$5.2 billion, while goods imports rose 0.7% to NZ$5.9 billion.

Exports to all of New Zealand major export partners were mostly up, except to the European Union. China still remained as the country’s export partner, with exports increasing 7.1% to NZ$1.5 billion.

However, imports from China saw the largest fall in February among all of New Zealand’s trading partners, slumping 22% to $1.2 billion. Imports from all other major trading partners rose.

The New Zealand dollar strengthened 0.3% on Tuesday, trading at 0.6227 against the U.S. dollar.

— Lim Hui Jie

South Korea saw an annualized 17.4% drop in exports and a 5.7% fall in imports for the first 20 days of March, data from its trade ministry showed.

Exports for the first 20 days of March came in at $30.9 billion dollars, while imports were at $37.3 billion.

Exports to the U.S. increased by 4.6% compared to the same period last year, while exports to China saw the largest fall by 36.2%, followed by Vietnam with a 28.3% drop.

Imports from China and Taiwan rose 9.1% and 14.1% respectively, while the largest drop of imports was seen from Australia with a 24.7% decrease.

Following the announcement, the Korean won weakened 0.18% to trade at 1,306.72 against the U.S. dollar.

Fears of contagion in the banking sector may have subsided with a rescue deal for Credit Suisse, but Goldman Sachs Chief Global Equity Strategist Peter Oppenheimer believes stocks are not out of the woods yet.

“Even if markets rebound from current levels in the short term, high uncertainty and lowered confidence levels are likely to mean an ongoing ‘fat & flat’ market given that valuations do not look particularly attractive,” he said.

Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Zavier Ong

It’s not just regional bank shares that have been hit by the recent banking crisis — large-cap bank stocks have also tumbled.

But some analysts say the selloff is overdone.

Kenny Polcari, chief market strategist at SlateStone Wealth, described the pullback as “an opportunity for those that have a strong stomach,” referring to stocks such as JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo.

For those looking to invest, CNBC Pro takes a look at what analysts are saying about JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America in particular.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Billionaire investor and Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman said the U.S. Federal Reserve should pause its interest rate hikes, as the Federal Open Market Committee meeting kicks off Tuesday.

Noting that markets have seen “major shocks” with the closures of U.S. banks, Ackman said the banking crisis “remain unresolved” and that higher rates will not help with the situation.

“This is not an environment into which the @federalreserve should be raising rates and adding additional pressure on the system as financial stability is the Fed’s first responsibility,” he said in his tweet

– Jihye Lee

The front-month April WTI Nymex was lower by 1.45% on Monday, trading at $65.75 per barrel. That level is still above Friday’s low of $65.17, which was the lowest level since December 2, 2021 when WTI traded as low as 62.43

Brent oil prices also dipped into the red, recently down 0.7%, or at $72.47 per barrel.

— Pia Singh

Bitcoin climbed to $28,551.73 in early trading, the highest level since June 12, 2022, when bitcoin traded as high as $28,647.91.

Ether reached $1,846.25, the highest level since Aug. 19, 2022, when ether traded as high as $1,879. Coinbase is on pace for its 6th straight daily advance.

The moves came as 2- and 10-year Treasury yields fell to their lowest levels in six months. The U.S. 2-year yield fell to 3.635%, the lowest since Sept. 13, while the U.S. 10-year yield touched 3.291%, the lowest since Sept 12.

— Scott Schnipper, Gina Francolla

Here are some of the names making the biggest moves in midday trading:

• UBS, Credit Suisse — U.S.-listed shares of Credit Suisse dove nearly 52% after UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs, or $3.2 billion. UBS shares gained about 5%.
• US Bancorp — The stock rallied nearly 6% after being upgraded to outperform from neutral by Baird. The Wall Street firm said US Bancorp could benefit as the bank crisis pushes depositors to move holdings to larger regional banks.
• Virgin Orbit— Shares tumbled more than 35% as the company scrambled to secure funding and avoid bankruptcy, which could come as early as this week without a deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

To see more stocks making moves in midday trading, read the full story here.

— Michelle Fox