General Trend:
- Asian automakers trade generally higher amid focus on earnings from Toyota, some investors are watching Feb 10th as this is when companies are due to resume operations following the coronavirus related halts
- Chinese liquor giant Kweichow Moutai is said to plan to resume production on Feb 13th (Chinese press)
- Sectors moving higher in early trading in Shanghai include Health Care, IT, Telecom Services and Industrials; interest rate sensitive sectors (banks, property, financials) lag
- HK gaming companies rise, outperform the Hang Seng index; Other sectors gaining in HK include energy, telecom and property
- Insurance, Iron/Steel and Marine/Transportation are among the sectors moving higher in Japan
- Toyota Motor raises FY Op profit guidance on factors including FX
- Japanese companies expected to report earnings later today include Shiseido, Nikon, Fujifilm, Kobe Steel, Japan Tobacco and NTT.
- Energy and Financial firms are among the gainers in Australia
- Semiconductor foundry UMC rises over 4% in Taiwan as Q4 results rose y/y, sees Q1 consistent with Q4
- India Central Bank is due to hold its rate decision later today
- China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds its weekly press conferences on Thursday (comments generally seen during the early European morning)
- US companies expected to report earnings during NY morning include Bristol-Myers, Cigna, Estee Lauder, Kellogg, NY Times, Philip Morris, S&P Global, Triumph Group, Tyson Foods, Twitter, Willis Towers Watson, WWE , YUM! Brands
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.4%
- (AU) AUSTRALIA Q4 NAB BUSINESS CONFIDENCE: -1 V -2 PRIOR; CONDITIONS: +4 V +2 PRIOR
- (AU) AUSTRALIA DEC RETAIL SALES M/M: -0.5% V -0.2%E; RETAIL SALES EX-INFLATION Q/Q: 0.5% V 0.3%E
- (AU) Australia Dec Trade Balance (A$): 5.2B v 5.6Be
- MGR.AU Reports H1 (A$) net 618M v 651M y/y; Op 613M v 648M y/y; Rev 1.62B v 1.56B y/y; extends 37.1M share buyback for 12-months to Feb 7th 2021
- (AU) Australia PM Morrison announces cabinet reshuffle, after 2 senior ministers resign, names new Agriculture and mining ministers
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +1.4%
- (JP) Japan Exchange to ease rules to move to the first section of the TSE from the second section (as speculated)
- 9684.JP Reports 9M Net ¥19.2B v ¥9.3B y/y; Op ¥27.8B v ¥12.4B y/y; Rev ¥189.7B v ¥181.7B y/y (yesterday after the close)
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Member Masai: Need to watch economic impact of coronavirus, price momentum is being maintained, must ease without hesitation if risks materialize, increase chance economy will lose momentum towards price target – speaking in Nara
- (JP) Japan MoF sells ¥700B v ¥700B indicated in 0.4% coupon 30-year JGBs, avg yield: 0.4260% v 0.43% prior, bid to cover 3.73x v 3.66x prior
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.9%
- (KR) South Korea Dec Current Account: $4.3B v $6.0B prior; Balance of Goods (BOP): $5.0B v $7.4B prior
- (KR) Auto parts makers in South Korea halt production due to output stoppages by automakers amid the coronavirus impact – Local press
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +1.5%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.3%
- (CN) China Tariff Committee: To cut tariff rates by as much as 50% (some goods to be cut from 10% to 5% prior and other from 5% to 2.5%) on $75B in US goods, effective Feb 14th – financial press
- (CN) China Hubei Corona virus update for Feb 5th: 2,987 additional cases v 3,156 prior; additional deaths 70 v 65 prior
- (CN) China National Health Commission Feb 4th: Confirmed cases 28,018 v 24,324 prior; Death toll of 563 v 490 prior
- Vanke, 000002.CN Reports Jan Contract Sales CNY54.9B v 57.3B m/m
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips Reverse Repo operations for the 2nd consecutive session; Net CNY0B v drain CNY30B prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 6.9985 v 6.9823 prior (weakest fix since Dec 25)
- (CN) China Iron and Steel Association (CISA): Outlook for Q1 is not optimistic due to coronavirus but more positive in Q2 due to potential stimulus; steel demand affected more than mill production
- (CN) Tencent “Epidemic Situation Tracker” briefly releases coronavirus statistics that are an order of magnitude higher than official figures with 154,023 confirmed cases, 79,808 suspected, and only 269 cured cases – Taiwan Press
Other
- Six central banks and Bank of International Settlements (BIS) to meet in mid-April on digital currency – Nikkei
- (TH) Bank of Thailand Gov Veerathai: Substantial volatility, uncertainty in world economy; Still have monetary policy space after rate cut
North America
- (US) FOLLOW UP: Pete Buttigieg remains in lead of Democratic Iowa Caucus with 96% of precincts reporting
Europe
- (UK) Foreign Sec Rabe: Hopes Australia will be part of first wave of Free Trade deals with UK
Levels as of 12:15ET
- Hang Seng +2.6%; Shanghai Composite +1.2%; Kospi +2.9%; Nikkei225 +2.6%; ASX 200 +1.1%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.6%; Nasdaq100 +0.7%, Dax +0.5%; FTSE100 +0.7%
- EUR 1.1001-1.0994; JPY 109.99-109.73; AUD 0.6765-0.6745; NZD 0.6485-0.6467
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.3% at $1,558/oz; Crude Oil +2.6% at $52.06/brl; Copper +1.1% at $2.61/lb
