General Trend:
- Japanese equities underperform amid the decline in USD/JPY
- Shanghai Composite declines over 3% in early trading, Telecom Services and IT shares drop by over 6%
- China Feb official PMI data is due on Feb 28th (after Friday’s US close)
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened -2.3%
- LYC.AU Reports H1 (A$) Net 3.9M v 19.0M y/y; EBITDA 44.2m v 50.8M y/y; Rev 180.1M v 179.8M y/y
- (AU) Australia Jan Private Sector Credit MM: 0.3% v 0.2%e; Y/Y: 2.5% v 2.4% prior
- (NZ) New Zealand said to confirm its first case of coronavirus – Local media; The report was later confirmed by NZ’s PM Ardern.
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -2.0%
- (JP) Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC): Emergency margin call triggered for Japan index Futures
- (JP) Japan Feb Tokyo CPI Y/Y: 0.4% v 0.5%e; CPI (ex-fresh Food) Y/Y: 0.5% v 0.6%e; CPI (ex-fresh f/energy) Y/Y: 0.7% v 0.8%e
- (JP) JAPAN JAN JOBLESS RATE: 2.4% V 2.2%E; Job-To-Applicant Ratio: 1.49 v 1.57e; New information requirement drove decline in job ads
- (JP) JAPAN JAN PRELIMINARY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: 0.8% V 0.2%E; Y/Y: -2.5% V -3.1%E; Japan govt raises assessment of industrial production
- (JP) JAPAN JAN RETAIL SALES M/M: +0.6% V -0.1%E; Y/Y: -0.4% V -1.3%E
- (JP) Japan Jan Dept Store, Supermarket Sales Y/Y: -1.4% v -1.6%e
- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Do not see need for a new extra budget now
- (JP) Japan Trade Min Kajiyama: To expand financial support measures to Japan firms in response to coronavirus outbreak – Japanese press
- (JP) Japan Health Min Kato: Won’t rule out chance schools may be shut down longer than 1-2 weeks, depends on virus outbreak developments
- (JP) Japan Ministry of Finance (MOF) Senior Official: No comment on market movements, moves reflect shock of the coronvirus spread; Not decided on if we will hold a MOF, BOJ, FSA meeting later today
- (JP) Japan Economy Min Nishimura: Domestic economy facing difficult situation with events being cancelled, but priority is preventing spread of virus
- 3938.JP Starting bitfront crypto exchange operations in the US
Korea
- Kospi opened -1.7%
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA JAN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: -1.3% V -1.7%E; Y/Y: -2.4% V +0.1%E
- (KR) South Korea Jan Cyclical Leading Index Change: 0.1 v 0.4 prior
- 005380.KR One worker at Ulsan, South Korea plant said to have tested positive for coronavirus, according to Yonhap; Hyundai has halted operations at Ulsan plant number 2
- (KR) South Korea Jan Retail Sales M/M: -3.1% v +0.3% prior; Y/Y: 1.8% v 4.6% prior
- (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) will be holding meeting on stock index plunge in major economies – text from BOK
- (US) US Forces Korea: US military to commence furlough for South Korea workers
- (KR) South Korea confirms 256 additional coronavirus cases; total cases 2,022
- (KR) South Korea Fin Ministry Official: To announce details of supplementary budget next week; Extra budget related to coronavirus will be larger than the KRW11.6T used to deal with MERS in 2015
- (KR) South Korea Finance Min Hong: Extra budget likely to affect this year’s tax income, extra budget will require issuance of deficit bonds
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened -2.0%; Shanghai Composite opened -2.2%
- (CN) China National Health Commission Coronavirus Update for Feb 27th: 327 additional cases v 433 prior; Additional deaths 44 v 29 prior; Hubei: 318 additional cases v 409 prior; additional deaths 41 v 26 prior
- (CN) China has approved 4 additional companies to release gold ETFs – People’s Daily
- 486.HK Reports Q4 aluminum production 949Kt, +0.7% q/q
- 16.HK Reports H1 (HKD) Net 15.4B v 20.5B y/y, Rev 38.7B v 37.1B y/y
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips reverse repo operations for the 9th consecutive time, Net CNY0B v drains CNY0B prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 7.0066 v 7.0215 prior
- (CN) China PBOC to conduct CNY5.0B central bank bill swap (CBS) operation on today’s session, coupon rate unchanged at 2.35%
- (CN) China to resume road traffic in regions with lower risks related to the coronavirus
Other
- (SA) Saudi Arabia said to be seeking bigger production cuts at next week’s OPEC meeting – FT
North America
- JPMorgan: Issues memo on new travel guidelines: The firm has restricted all non-essential travel ‘globally’ – US financial press
- (US) CDC Director Redfield: we’re aggressively evaluating how long coronavirus can survive and be infectious on surfaces
- (US) President Trump: Weve done a great job on coronavirus, in constant communication with China President Xi, watching numbers in China coming down
- FCAU Ending the third shift at Windsor assembly facility, 1.5K workers to be affected – press
- (US) US Health and Human Services Sec Azar: Risk to Americans is ‘low’, but that can change [comments on coronavirus]
- CSCO Said to plan undisclosed number of job cuts – US financial press
- DELL Reports Q4 $2.00 v $1.98e, Rev $24.1B v $24.0Be; announces $1B share repurchase program (3% of market cap)
- (US) Fed’s Evans (dove, non-voter in 2020): Fed has capacity to provide more accommodation if needed; premature to consider policy action until we have more data
Europe
- (UK) FEB GFK CONSUMER CONFIDENCE: -7 V -8E
- (IE) ECB’s Lane (Ireland, chief economist): monetary accommodation still needed in the Euro Area
Levels as of 00:20 ET
- Nikkei 225, -4.3%, ASX 200 -3.3%, Hang Seng -2.9%; Shanghai Composite -3.1%; Kospi -3.2%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -1.2%; Nasdaq100 -1.8%, Dax -1.2%; FTSE100 -1.6%
- EUR 1.1005-1.0982 ; JPY 109.88-108.91 ; AUD 0.6586-0.6528 ;NZD 0.6320-0.6245
- Gold -0.3% at $1,637/oz; Crude Oil -2.6% at $45.88/brl; Copper -0.9% at $2.530/l
