Nikkei Lags After Recent Yen Strength And Comments From Tokyo’s Gov

Jun 24 20, 06:54 GMT

General Trend:

Tech companies trade generally higher in Hong Kong amid the Nasdaq’s recent strength, Tencent hits record high; Shanghai IT index also outperforms
Decliners in Japan include Transports, Property firms and Banks
Resource and Consumer Discretionary names are among the gainers in Australia, decliners include Energy and Financial sectors
Australia’s Woolworths reinstated certain product limits in Victoria [amid recent rise in coronavirus cases in the Australian state]
Samsung rises over 3% amid general strength in SK chip sector [trading vol above avg]
Hyundai Rotem [manufacturer of railway vehicles] rises over 13% on M&A speculation
ONGC (Indian oil co.) suspends drilling at certain rigs on coronavirus concerns
Bank of Thailand to hold monetary policy decision later today (no changes expected)
Tokyo Gov issues warning related to coronavirus clusters in workplaces, Nikkei moved lower after the comments
Japan’s MOF is due to sell 20-year bonds on June 25th (Thursday)

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened flat
Woolworths [WOW.AU]: In Victoria, has reinstated a purchase limit of two items on various items (including toilet paper, hand sanitiser, paper towel, flour, sugar, pasta, mince, UHT milk, eggs and rice); move is in response to significantly elevated demand seen over the past 24 hours in certain parts of Melbourne
(AU) Australia Treasurer Frydenberg said a support package for the arts will be announced in the near term; now sees Australia unemployment rate rising to ~8.0% [forecast 10% in early May] – Australia press
(AU) Australia May Skilled Vacancies M/M: -8.7% v -16.4% prior
(AU) Australia Victoria state reports 20 additional coronavirus cases v 17 prior; 1 additional death reported [First COVID-19 related death in Australia in 1 month]
(NZ) NEW ZEALAND CENTRAL BANK (RBNZ) LEAVES OFFICIAL CASH RATE (OCR) UNCHANGED AT 0.25%; AS EXPECTED; Maintains bond purchases at NZ$60B (as expected); Rising NZ$ is putting pressure on exports
(NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$270M v NZ$410M prior in government bonds as part of QE v NZ$270M sought

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.5%, Shanghai Composite +0.2%
(US) US Senate Judiciary Committee said to consider holding China accountable for losses related to COVID-19; Senator Graham (R-SC) said to reiterate his support for allowing US citizens to sue China in relation to coronavirus – press
(CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY180B in 7-day repos v Injects combined CNY200B in 7-day and 14-day reverse repos prior; Net inject CNY180B v Net injection CNY200B prior
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.0555 v 7.0671 prior
(CN) China Ministry of Finance (MOF): To extend waiver on port construction fees for import and export cargos until end of 2020
(CN) Reportedly China and India have reached agreement to de-escalate border tensions – press
(IN) India imposes anti-dumping tariffs on certain China steel imports
(HK) Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold HK$1.14B as HKD hit strong end of trading band versus USD

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened flat
(JP) Tokyo, Japan Gov Koike: Coronavirus case number will be large today, workplace coronavirus clusters are a problem
(JP) Tokyo reports 55 additional coronavirus cases (Highest since May 5th)
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ Summary of Opinions from June 15-16th policy meeting: Economy has faced downward pressure but appears to have bottomed out; it is desirable to carefully confirm and examine..[policy measures] effects for the time being.
(JP) Japan May PPI Services Y/Y: 0.8% v 0.8%e
(JP) Japan Apr Final Leading Index CI: 77.7 v 76.2 prelim; Coincident Index: 80.1 v 81.5 prelim
(JP) Japan reported to ease event capacity rules related to coronavirus – press

Korea

Kospi opened +0.7%
(KR) North Korea leader Kim Jong-un suspends plans for military action against South Korea, the move said to come after North Korea’s Central Military Commission took stock of the prevailing situation – Yonhap
(KR) North Korea reported to remove propaganda loudspeakers near border

Other Asia

North America

Tyson Foods [TSN]: Spokesperson: Tyson certifies meat shipments to China are free of coronavirus
T-Mobile [TMUS]: Confirms pricing of 143.4M shares at $103/shr [the shares are being sold by Softbank]

Europe

Dialog Semi [DLG.DE]: Raises Q2 Rev guidance to $290-305M (prior $260-290M); The increase in the outlook range is due to stronger than expected demand for tablets, notebooks and wearable products

Levels as of 1:20 ET

Nikkei 225, -0.1%, ASX 200 +0.2% , Hang Seng -0.2%; Shanghai Composite flat ; Kospi +1.5%
Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.1%; Nasdaq100 +0.3%, Dax +0.2%
EUR 1.1325-1.1307; JPY 106.63-106.38 ; AUD 0.6963-0.6924;NZD 0.6527-0.6450
Gold +0.2% at $1,785/oz; Crude Oil -0.3% at $40.25/brl; Copper +0.2% at $2.658/lb