General Trend:
- Gainers in HK include tech and energy firms
- Sectors moving higher in Australia include Energy, Resources and Financials; Qantas and James Hardie rise after issuing business updates
- Offshore yuan (CNH) rises amid dearth of new Trump comments on China
- Aussie Treasurer: Support already provided will be enough
- Leaders of NZ and AU meet to discuss border
- RBA offers baseline scenarios for GDP, to broaden range of eligible collateral for OMOs; RBA to release quarterly statement on monetary policy (SOMP) on Friday
- Indonesia enters technical recession in Q1 (as expected)
- Malaysia Central Bank expected to cut rates by 50bps
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.2%
- (AU) RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA (RBA) LEAVES CASH TARGET RATE UNCHANGED AT 0.25% AND 3-YR BOND YIELD TARGET AT 0.25%, AS EXPECTED; Unemployment to peak ~10% and will remain above 7% at the end of 2021; Sees Q2 CPI turning negative temporarily; Sees 2021 CPI 1.0-1.5%; Sees 2020 GDP at -6% y/y
- (AU) Australia Treasurer Frydenberg: Sees A$50B hit to GDP in Q2 ($32B); Shutdown costs A$4B in economic activity per week
- (AU) Australia Apr AIG Performance of Construction Index: 21.6 v 37.9 prior (record low)
- JHX.AU Guides FY20 adj Net $350-355M (prior $350-370M); Suspends dividend; to layoff global workforce by ~375 employees; gives business update
- (NZ) NEW ZEALAND MAR BUILDING PERMITS M/M: -21.3% V +4.7% PRIOR
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) adds A$1.56B to banking system through repos v A$1.83B prior
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$61.9B v A$60.6B prior
- (AU) Australia Mar 14th to Apr 18th Weekly Payroll Jobs y/y: -7.5% v -6.0% prior; Wages y/y: -8.2% v -6.7% prior
- (AU) Australia PM Morrison: We need to get 1M Australians back to work; Early access to pension funds now totals A$10B
Japan
- Nikkei 225 closed for holiday
- 9984.JP WeWork co-founder Neumann sues for canceled deal – press
- 4901.JP Japan planning to speed up approval of Avigan for use treating coronavirus, thought it could come before the end of May – Nikkei
Korea
- Kospi closed for holiday
- (KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: there is a need to temporarily ease regulations that have become obstacles to corporate investment; called on ministry officials to draw up plans to revitalize private consumption – Yonhap
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.6%; Shanghai Composite closed for holiday
- (CN) China National Health Commission Coronavirus Update for May 4th: 1 additional cases ( imported v 3 prior) v 3 prior; Additional deaths: 0 v 0 prior; Additional Asymptomatic cases: 15 v 13 prior
- (CN) Report presented to China President Xi last month showed that global anti-China sentiment is at the highest level since 1989 Tiananmen Square period – press
- (CN) China received 104M domestic tourists over May 1-4th Labor Day holiday v 195M y/y; Tourism Rev CNY43.2B v CNY117.7B y/y – China Daily
- (HK) Hong Kong Q1 Advance GDP Q/Q: -5.3% v -1.7%e; Y/Y: -8.9% v -6.4%e (overnight)
North America
- UAL Reported to cut 30% of management and 30% of pilots in October –press
- LB Outlines Go-Forward Strategy; Terminates previously announced transaction with Sycamore; To retain Pink and Victoria’s Secret brands
- SHAK Reports Q1 $0.02 v $0.01e, Rev $143.2M v $146Me; SSS -12.8% (-29% in March)
- SBUX Over 85% of co-operated stores to reopen this week, will not have dine-in services for now – financial press
- (VE) Venezuela Pres Maduro: US is involved in invasion attempt, SIlvercorp USA was in charge of attack; 2 US citizens are among those detained on Monday
Europe
- (DE) Germany States to reopen schools for all grades on rotating shift basis, to reopen large shops from May 11th, to allow Bundesliga soccer league to resume from May 15th under strict conditions – press
- SAP.DE Company has identified that some of its cloud products do not meet one or several contractually agreed or statutory IT security standards at present; affects 9% of customers
- (UK) Apr Auto sales at the lowest level since 1946 – SMMT
Levels as of 1:15ET
- Hang Seng +0.7%; Shanghai Composite closed; Kospi closed; Nikkei225 closed; ASX 200 +1.5%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.9%; Nasdaq100 +0.8%, Dax +0.6%; FTSE100 +1.5%
- EUR 1.0917-1.0899; JPY 106.78-106.52; AUD 0.6456-0.6418; NZD 0.6069-0.6044
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.4% at $1,706/oz; Crude Oil +6.5% at $21.73/brl; Copper +0.5% at $2.33/lb
