General Trend:
- Japanese equities lag in Asia amid heavy session for ex-dividends, financials trade generally lower; Japan’s fiscal year is due to end on March 31st (Tuesday)
- Australian equities rise after the over 5% losses seen on Friday, sectors moving higher include Consumer Staples and Financials
- Shanghai Composite declines over 1.5% in early trading; Telecom Services firms drop after earnings from ZTE
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened -0.2%
- (AU) Australia Govt to announce additional A$298M relief package for airlines – Aussie press
- (AU) Australia PM Morrison: Committing A$130B over 6-months to support jobs; A$1,500/fortnight job keeper payment; want to keep engine of economy running
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ): Announces new weekly open market operation (OMO) which will provide liquidity in exchange for eligible corporate and asset-backed securities
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$63.5B v A$63.6B prior
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$450M in its first QE operations v NZ$450M sought
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) adds A$1.12B to banking system through repos v A$2.25B prior
- (AU) Australia sells A$1.0B v A$1.0B indicated in 2.25% Nov 2022 bonds, avg yield 0.2711%, bid to cover 4.17x
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) offers to buy total of A$3.0B in bonds v A$3.0B prior
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Gov Orr: NZ financial system is resilient; financial system has significant capital and liquidity buffers; have other tools at the ready to keep cost of borrowing low for as long as needed
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -2.6%
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) reiterates stance in wake of coronavirus that capital buffer and liquidity requirements to be eligible as counterparty to its market operations can be relaxed as needed
- (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Suga: Emergency declaration needs careful consideration, on the verge of needed to declare it
- (JP) Japan ruling LDP party considering ¥100K cash handout – Japan media
- (JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: Stimulus package will take into account postponed Olympics will mean several trillion yen worth of demand pushed into 2021
- 9984.JP Satellite startup OneWeb Global files for bankruptcy (had raised $3.4B from Softbank, Airbus, Qualcomm) – financial press
- 4901.JP Japan planning to test Avigan for its effectiveness against coronavirus – press
- (JP) Japan PM Abe: We will announce “huge, powerful” measures that will include fiscal stimulus, monetary steps and tax breaks for companies as part of stimulus package, amount to exceed the total amount put together in response to 2008 crisis – press citing speech Saturday
Korea
- Kospi opened -2.6%
- (KR) South Korea planning KRW9.1T emergency relief fund, includes KRW7.1T extra budget
- (KR) North Korea tested a “super-large” multiple rocket launcher a day after firing 2 short range ballistic missiles – North Korea media
- (KR) South Korea President Moon: Govt will provide a 4 person household with KRW1.0M stimulus check of which gross income stays at or below 70% of total; planning 2nd extra budget
- (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) to hold auction to inject US dollar liquidity on March 31st at 10 am local time (1 GMT), to offer the funds at 25bps over the overnight index swap rate – financial press
- (KR) South Korea sells 3-month Monetary Stabilization Bonds (MSB); avg yield 0.770% v 0.750% prior
- (KR) South Korea reports 78 additional coronavirus cases v 105 prior; 6 additional deaths
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened -2.0%; Shanghai Composite opened -1.2%
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY50B in 7-day reverse repos v 28 consecutive skips prior; Net injection CNY50B v CNY0B prior; Cuts rate to 2.20% from 2.40%
- (CN) China PBOC adviser Ma Jun: Reverse repo rate cut to help lower financing costs. Timing of cut was in consideration of domestic work resumption, global virus situation, deterioration in external economic environment
- (CN) China President Xi: Govt will adjust support policies to protect small and medium term firms from impact of coronavirus; Should actively resume operation and production amid virus control – state media
- (CN) China PBOC: Economic downward pressure is increasing; will use monetary tools to keep liquidity ample
- (CN) China Politburo: Will raise the fiscal deficit ratio, increase issuance of treasuries, local govt special purpose bonds; will guide down loan rates
- 386.HK Reports FY19 (CNY) Net 57.5B v 61.6B y/y; Op 86.2B v 82.3B y/y; Rev 2.97T v 2.89T y/y
- (CN) China National Health Commission Coronavirus Update for March 29th: 31 additional cases (30 imported) v 55 prior; Additional deaths: 4 v 5 prior; Hubei: 0 additional cases v 0 March 26th; additional deaths: 4 v 5 March 26th
- (CN) China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has given CICC and 5 other Chinese securities firms more flexibility in risk assessment after putting their financial statements under supervision on a consolidated basis
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.0447 v 7.0427 prior
- (CN) China Vice Industry Min (MIIT): Have issued CNY200B in loans to 5.0K businesses in support; set aside CNY300B in loans as businesses return to work – briefing in Beijing
Other Asia
- (SG) SINGAPORE CENTRAL BANK (MAS) SEMI-ANNUAL MONETARY POLICY STATEMENT: REDUCES SLOPE OF CURRENCY BAND TO ZERO STARTING AT PREVAILING LEVEL, MAINTAINS WIDTH OF BAND; AFFIRMS PRESENT S$NEER LEVEL
- (TW) Taiwan Central Bank Gov: Will make more money available if NT$200B in loans for SMEs is not enough; virus impact on financial markets is small ocmpared to 2008, do not think a financial crisis will occur
North America
- (US) CDC reports total coronavirus cases in the US +18.7% d/d to 122,653; Total deaths 2,112 v 1,668 prior
- (US) NIH’s Fauci projects possible ‘millions’ of US coronavirus cases, ‘100,000-200,000’ death – CNN
- (US) CDC issues “strong travel warning” asking the people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have been urged to “refrain from non-essential domestic travel” for the next two weeks
- (US) President Trump: Extends virus guidelines to April 30th, will be on our way to recovery by June 1st; Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin being tested on 1.1K people in New York; sees deaths peaking in 2-weeks; may reinstate corporate meal and entertainment deductions
Europe
- (UK) England Dep Chief Medical Officer Harries: data suggests we could get on top of virus within 12 weeks
- (IT) Italy reports 5,794 additional cases of coronavirus, 756 additional deaths (2nd consecutive day of declines)
- (UK) Banks said to be in talks with FCA about credit card deferrals –FT
- NOVN.CH CEO Vas Narasimhan: Hydroxychloroquine is the biggest hope against COVID-19; pre-clinical studies in animals showing it works against coronavirus – Swiss press
Levels as of 1:15ET
- Hang Seng -0.7%; Shanghai Composite -1.2%; Kospi -0.2%; Nikkei225 -3.4%; ASX 200 +7.0%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.8%; Nasdaq100 +0.5%, Dax +0.7%; FTSE100 +2.3%
- EUR 1.1144-1.1069; JPY 107.97-107.14; AUD 0.6184-0.6113; NZD 0.6064-0.5995
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.7% at $1,642/oz; Crude Oil -4.4% at $20.56/brl; Copper -0.4% at $2.16/lb
