General Trend:
- Asian chip companies rise, Hynix extends gains seen in the aftermath of earnings report
- Nikkei 225 supported by tech sector: Softbank advances over 1%, chip equipment firm SUMCO rises over 8%
- Japanese automakers rise, Nissan and Mitsubishi gain after Renault named new Chairman and CEO
- Shanghai Property index rises over 2%, telecom index lags
- Tencent rises over 3% on gaming approval in China
- In South Korea, Kia Motors declines on weaker earnings
- Australian financial AMP drops on dividend guidance
- Pound (GBP) moves above 1.31 amid Brexit headline
- Japan Tokyo core CPI rises to highest level since 2015, remains below BoJ 2% target
- Second phase of China RRR cut took effect on today’s session, equals 50bps (originally announced on Jan 4th)
- China Vice Premier Liu He expected to visit the US next week for trade talks (Jan 30-31st)
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.2%
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) extends capital review submission deadline to May 3rd 2019; Proposing to almost double required amount of high quality capital banks will have to hold
China/Hong Kong
- Shanghai opened +0.2%, Hang Seng +0.6%
- (US) Commerce Sec Ross: we are experiencing global slowdowns; we are “miles and miles” away from a China trade agreement – CNBC
- (US) Treasury Sec Mnuchin: CNY is only one important aspect of China trade talks; will discuss currency issues at next week’s trade talks – comments in DC
- (US) Pres Trump: it would be great if we could make a deal with China
- (CN) China PBOC: Banking system liquidity at ‘relatively high’ level after second stage of RRR cut
- (CN) China PBoC to introduce bills swap to provide liquidity support to perpetual bonds
- (CN) Guotai Junan Securities analyst said PBoC bill swap program related to perpetual bonds could mark the beginning of QE in China – US financial press
- (CN) China CSRC (securities regulator) refutes press speculation related to personnel change – China Press
- (CN) George Soros speaks out against China’s President Xi from Davos – US press
- (CN) China PBoC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 6.7941 v 6.7802 prior
- (HK) IMF says it sees the risk of ‘sharp’ housing correction in Hong Kong: Sees 2019 GDP growth slowing to 2.9%, balance of risks shifted to downside
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +0.1%
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) might need to consider whether to revise certain output gap and services producer price index estimates, cites labor data inaccuracies – Japanese Press
- (JP) Japan Finance Min Aso: No problem in MOF corporate data, some figures were missing
- (JP) JAPAN JAN TOKYO CPI Y/Y: 0.4% V 0.2%E; CPI EX-FRESH FOOD (CORE) Y/Y: 1.1% V 0.9%E (highest since 2015)
- (JP) US-Japan trade talks likely to be delayed until Feb, partial US government shutdown cited – Nikkei
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.1%
- (KR) South Korea Foreign Min Kang: date for North Korea-US summit could be announced soon – Davos comments
- (KR) South Korea Jan Consumer Confidence: 97.5 v 97.2 prior
North America
- (US) Senate blocks Democratic govt funding package which did not include border wall (as expected)
- (US) Senate blocks Pres Trump’s govt funding package which included border wall funding (as expected)
- (US) Sen Portman (R-OH): there are bipartisan talks over 3-week continuing resolution combined with ‘downpayment on border security’ and commitment from Democrats to ‘do a deal’
- (US) Democrats said to still not support any kind of border wall funds, this position was made clear to Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R) – US financial press
- (US) SEMI: Dec North America Billings $2.11B v $1.94B prior, +8.5% m/m and -12.1% y/y
Europe
- (UK) Northern Ireland’s DUP reportedly have privately agreed to support PM May’s Brexit deal when she ‘toughens it up’ – UK’s The Sun
- (DE) Germany Econ affairs ministry cuts 2019 GDP growth outlook to 1.0% (prior forecast 1.8%) – Handelsblatt
Levels as of 01:00ET
- Nikkei 225, +1.1%, ASX 200 +0.7%, Hang Seng +1.5%; Shanghai Composite +0.9%; Kospi +1.4%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.6%; Nasdaq100 +0.8%, Dax +0.5%; FTSE100 +0.2%
- EUR 1.1327-1.1299 ; JPY 109.87-109.51 ; AUD 0.7114-0.7075 ;NZD 0.6779-0.6747
- Feb Gold +0.1% at $1,281/oz; Feb Crude Oil +1.4% at $53.86/brl; Feb Copper +0.7% at $2.665/lb
