General Trend:
- Nikkei reverses opening gain, large component Fast Retailing is among the decliners
- IT index weighs on the Shanghai market in early trading; Energy sector gains
- Chinese officials seek to ease concerns about economy, Q4 GDP figures expected next week (Jan 21st)
- New Zealand sells 2029 bonds at a bid to cover of less than 2.0x
- Australia Jan consumer inflation expectations decline to lowest level since 2016
- Indonesia Central Bank expected to hold rate decision later today, unchanged expected
- US companies expected to report earnings on Thursday include American Express, Morgan Stanley and Netflix (includes afterhours)
- Rio Tinto expected to report quarterly production on Friday
Headlines/Economic Data
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +0.5%
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Deputy Gov Amamiya: Aging could have negative impact on economy
- 6366.JP Said to be seeking ¥100B in financial aid – Japan press
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BoJ) Gov Kuroda: With low interest rate environment, there is a greater risk that central banks will face zero lower bound problem
- (JP) Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER): Japan GDP -0.7% in Nov v 0% prior month; notes declines for capital spending, consumption and exports – Nikkei
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.2%
- (KR) US Vice Pres Pence: North Korea has yet to take “concrete steps” to dismantle its nuclear weapons program – Yonhap
- (KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: Govt to increase the number of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles to ~80K units by 2022 as part of a broader effort to give a boost to the “hydrogen economy” – Yonhap
- (KR) South Korea National Pension Service (NPS) to diversify its investment portfolio this year in an effort to boost returns; to invest more in overseas securities and alternatives while cutting back on bond investments – Yonhap
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.2%, Shanghai Composite +0.1%
- 960.HK Substantial shareholder Junson Development International sold a total of 150M shares at HK$22.70/share
- (CN) Analysts see China Q4 GDP at 6.4% y/y (would match the slowest pace since early 2009 ) – US financial press
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market (OMO): Injects CNY400B combined in 7-day and 28-day reverse repos v CNY570B injection of 7-day and 28-day prior; Net: CNY380B injection v CNY560B injection prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 6.7592 v 6.7615 prior
- (CN) China PBOC Deputy Gov Pan: important to build a transparent and open bond market; ‘hopefully’ no immediate repatriation of proceeds from Panda bonds
- 486.HK, RUALR.RU Senate fails to advance sanctions measure against Rusal and EN+ – press
- HUAWEI.CN US federal prosecutors reportedly to pursue criminal charges against Huawei over theft of trade secrets; indictment could come soon – WSJ
- US senators getting ready to introduce bill targeting Huawei and ZTE that would ban the sale of their products and components in the US
- (CN) FTSE Russell Exec: Seeking consensus from investors on including China bonds into its global indices
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.2%
- WHC.AU Reports Q2 production managed saleable coal 5.6Mt v 5.0 y/y; ROM coal 7.4Mt v 5.4M y/y; Affirms FY19 guidance
- WPL.AU Reports Q4 Rev $1.42B v $939.3M y/y; Production 24.1MMBOE v 23.3e v 21.9 y/y; Guides FY19 production 88-94 MMBOE; CAPEX $1.6-1.7B
- (NZ) New Zealand Dec REINZ House Sales Y/Y: -12.9% v +2.6% prior
- (AU) Australia Jan Consumer Inflation Expectation: 3.5% v 4.0% prior
- (AU) AUSTRALIA NOV HOME LOANS M/M: -0.9% V 2.2 % PRIOR; Owner Occupier Loan Value m/m: -1.4% v 3.5% prior
- (NZ) New Zealand sells NZ$250M in 3.00% 20209 bonds; avg yield 2.2709% v 2.5990% prior; bid to cover 1.59x v 2.89x prior
Other Asia
- (SG) Singapore Dec Non-Oil Domestic Exports m/m: -5.7% v +3.0%e; y/y: -8.5% v +2.0%e; Electronic Exports y/y: -11.2% v 4.3% prior
- 2330.TW Reports Q4 (NT$) Net 99.9B v 99.1Be; Op 107.1B v 108Be; Rev 289.8B, +4.4% y/y
North America
- AAPL Reportedly planning to reducing hiring in some divisions (unclear which yet) as iPhone sales slow – press citing his meeting with employees
- (US) Fed’s Kashkari (dove, non-voter): Fed has less room to cut rates in a future downturn, but there are other tools
- (US) Senate Finance Committee Chairman Grassley (R-IA): Think that Trump is leaning toward implementing auto tariffs – US financial press
- (US) In 2018 Port of Los Angeles handled 9.46M TEUs (record high), +1.2% y/y – financial press
- (US) According to an un-named official from Trump administration the shutdown will negatively impact GDP by 0.1%/week, analysts see negative impact on the economy of $1.2B/week – Guardian
Europe
- (UK) PM MAY SURVIVES ‘NO-CONFIDENCE’ VOTE IN PARLIAMENT (as expected); Vote 325 for May and 306 against
- (UK) PM May: there’s now an opportunity to find a way forward on Brexit; the last 24 hours have been unsettling for the country
- (UK) Labour shadow Chancellor McDonnell: Think there is a majority in Parliament for Brexit with a permanent customs union – speaking on Peston
- (UK) Dec RICS House Price Balance: -19% v -13%e; Expect next 3 months to be weakest on records dating back to 1999
- (UK) Over 100 business leaders said to favor 2nd referendum on Brexit – UK Times
Levels as of 12:50ET
- Hang Seng +0.2%; Shanghai Composite +0.2%; Kospi +0.2%; Nikkei225 -0.2%; ASX 200 +0.3%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.3%; Nasdaq100 -0.3%, Dax -0.4%; FTSE100 -0.3%
- EUR 1.1378-1.1403; JPY 108.84-109.14 ; AUD 0.7150-0.7176;NZD 0.6742-0.6782
- Feb Gold -0.1% at $1,292/oz; Feb Crude Oil -0.6% at $52.02/brl; Mar Copper +0.3% at $2.68/lb
