Asian Indices Trade Mixed After Gains On Monday, Oil Prices Extend Losses

Apr 28 20, 05:58 GMT

General Trend:

Chinese Telecom Services and IT names decline in early trading as China moved to fast track IPOs on the ChiNext; US has placed new restrictions on exports to military buyers in China (press)
HK bank earnings in focus (HSBC, ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications)
Japanese equities decline after gains on Monday, declining sectors include Iron & Steel and Real Estate
Australia ASX 200 Energy index underperforms; Consumer Discretionary sector rises as more local governments in Australia announce easing of social distancing measures
BHP considering plan to increase iron ore export capacity
HK Leader: Civil servants can return to office work starting on May 4th
Australia Q1 CPI due for release on Wed (April 29th

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.1%
(AU) Australia Treasurer Frydenberg: Will give updated economic and fiscal outlook in June
WES.AU Reports Q3 Kmart, Target sales broadly inline with H1 supported by online sales, remain profitable, Target earnings decreased significantly
WBC.AU Guides H1 pretax impairment charge A$2.2B; guides CET1 ratio 10.8%
(AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$69.8B v A$66.4B prior
BHP.AU Starting process to increase volumes if market conditions allow, looking to go beyond 290Mt/year
(AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) adds A$950M to banking system through repos v A$4.28B prior
(NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$445M in Govt Bonds at QE auction v NZ$450M sought
(AU) Australia sells A$2.5B v A$2.5B indicated in 1.25% May 2032 bonds, avg yield 1.0722%, bid to cover 3.20x
(AU) Australia Treasury: Not working on any new economic packages at this time

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened flat
(JP) According to Asahi poll 66% of Japanese do not want Japan PM Abe to serve another term
(JP) Japan Gov’t: Plans to cut issuance of inflation-linked government bonds at May 8th auction to ¥200B from ¥300B
(JP) JAPAN MAR JOBLESS RATE: 2.5% V 2.5%E; Job to applicant ratio: 1.39 v 1.40e (lowest level since 2016 for Japan)
(JP) Japan PM Abe: Most important economic responsibility is to protect jobs – speaking in parliament
(JP) Japan Medical Association President: There would need to be very fast development of drugs, vaccine to make Olympics possible in 2021
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) announcement related to daily bond buying operation: Raises all buying amounts

Korea

Kospi opened +0.4%
(KR) South Korea President Moon: Q2 GDP to be worse than Q1 (implies technical recession)
(KR) South Korea Apr Consumer Confidence: 70.8 v 78.4 prior (over 10-year low)
(KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: Needs additional KRW4.6T to fund cash handouts to every household – local press
051910.KR Reports Q1 (KRW) Net 36.4B v 211.9B y/y; Op 236.5B v 281.0B y/y; Rev 7.12T v 6.62T y/y; Cuts FY20 capex plan
(KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) provides KRW180B in liquidity vai weekly repo operations v KRW270B prior
(KR) South Korea Unification Min: We are aware of North Korea leader Kim location, no unusual movement in North Korea
(KR) South Korea Mar Department Store sales Y/Y: -40.3% v -21.4% prior; Discount Store Sales Y/Y -13.8% v -10.6% prior

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.5%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.2%
(CN) China PBOC to soon start trials related to digital currency in the Xiongan New Area (Hebei)– China Daily
(CN) China National Health Commission Coronavirus Update for April 27th: 6 additional cases ( 3 imported v 2 prior) v 3 prior; Additional deaths: 0 v 0 prior; Additional Asymptomatic cases: 40 v 25 prior
USD/HKD HKMA sells HK$10.7B into the market during NY trading hours as HKD traded at strong end of trading range
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.0710 v 7.0703 prior
(CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips Reserve Repo Operations for the 19th consecutive session; Net CNY0B v CNY0B prior
(CN) China Ministry of Human Resources and Social Securities: 6 regions in China have increase minimum wage above CNY2,000/month – China Daily
5.HK Reports Q1 Net $1.8B v $4.1B y/y, adj Pretax $3.0B v $6.2B y/y, Rev $13.7B v $14.4B y/y; to temporarily delay parts of transformation plan

Other

(SG) Singapore Central Bank (MAS) Economic Review: Singapore Economy in 2020 is likely to contract markedly, could be more than official GDP forecast of -4% to -1%; core and headline CPI to turn negative

North America

(US) President Trump: US continuing to see encouraging signs of progress; All parts of the US are in good shape or getting better, states should be open quickly and safely; testing is good enough to open
BA Seattle Times corrects report, Company has not provided job cut estimates to union (had reported to cut workforce by 15-35%)
GM Ford, and Fiat Chrysler reportedly to resume limited US factory output with May 18th as target restart date – press

Europe

Levels as of 1:15ET

Hang Seng +0.5%; Shanghai Composite 0.0%; Kospi +0.4%; Nikkei225 -0.4%; ASX 200 -0.5%
Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.3%; Nasdaq100 -0.2%, Dax -0.1%; FTSE100 +0.2%
EUR 1.0837-1.0817; JPY 107.34-107.19; AUD 0.6470-0.6433; NZD 0.6050-0.5992
Commodity Futures: Gold -0.9% at $1,708/oz; Crude Oil -12.9% at $11.13/brl; Copper -0.2% at $2.34/lb