General Trend:
- Australian equities outperform, financial and consumer discretionary cos. rise after Victoria unveiled coronavirus related restrictions; These cos. had dropped ahead of the announcement
- Various Australian cos. updated the market on the impact of the new restrictions in Victoria
- Gainers in Japan include automakers, transports, banks and Iron/Steel cos.
- Japan Airlines rises over 4% after reporting financial results
- Softbank lags the broader market in Japan amid comments from local tax agency
- Japanese companies expected to report earnings include Mitsubishi UFJ, Sony, Nippon Steel, Ricoh, Orix Corp, Subaru, Softbank Corp and Astellas
- Fast Retailing due to report monthly sales after the market close
- Shanghai Composite trades flat during morning session; Financials trade generally higher, while Consumer and IT firms decline
- Hang Seng property index rises ; HSBC extends losses following recently reported earnings
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.4%
- (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; To resume bond Buying August 5th (Wednesday) [Note: RBA has not purchased government bonds under its QE program since early May]
- (AU) AUSTRALIA Q2 RETAIL SALES EX INFLATION Q/Q: -3.4% V -3.0%E
- (AU) AUSTRALIA JUNE FINAL RETAIL SALES M/M: +2.7% V 2.4%E
- (AU) Australia June Trade Balance (A$): 8.2B v 8.8Be
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.8%, Shanghai Composite opened +0.3%
- (CN) China PBoC may not ease monetary policy in H2 [in line with prior report] – Chinese press
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.9803 v 6.9980 prior
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips reverse repos v Skips reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY80B v Net drain CNY100B prior (2nd straight skip)
Japan
- Nikkei225 opened +0.8
- Softbank Group [9984.JP] Spokesman: Revised income statement to show an additional ÂĄ40B in income due to incorrect cost calculations [comments on press report that co. failed to report $378M in income related to FY18/19]
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: BOJ could support Japan Corporations for a longer period of time [the programs are currently due to expire in March 2021], noted increasing coronavirus cases in and outside of Tokyo – Japanese press
- (JP) JAPAN JUNE TOKYO CPI Y/Y: 0.6% V 0.3%E; CPI (EX-FRESH FOOD) Y/Y: 0.4% V 0.1%E
- (JP) Japan July Monetary Base Y/Y: 9.8% v 6.0% prior
- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: No need to change FY25 budget balance target; Any South Korea Asset Seizure of Japan assets is illegal
- (JP) Japan MoF sells ÂĄ2.6T v ÂĄ2.6T indicated in 0.1% 10-year JGBs, avg yield: 0.018% v 0.058% prior; bid to cover 3.64x v 3.7x prior
Korea
- Kospi opened +1%
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA JULY CPI M/M: 0.0% V 0.1%E; Y/Y: 0.3% V 0.3%E
- (KR) South Korea announces it will provide 132K housing units in capital Seoul to increase housing supply in Seoul
North America
- (US) Pres Trump: Could prevent evictions through executive action; Can suspend the collection of payroll taxes through executive order.
Europe
- (IE) Ireland July PMI Manufacturing: 57.3 v 51.0 prior (2nd straight expansion)
Levels as of 1:20 ET
- Nikkei 225, +1.7%, ASX 200 +1.8% , Hang Seng +0.8%; Shanghai Composite -0.1% ; Kospi +0.9%
- Equity S&P500 Futures:-0.1 %; Nasdaq100 +0.1%, Dax +0.1%; FTSE100 -0.2%
- EUR 1.1773-1.1752 ; JPY 106.19-105.94 ; AUD 0.7138-0.7105 ;NZD 0.6625-0.6605
- Gold +0.3% at $1,981/oz; Crude Oil -0.7% at $40.72/brl; Copper -0.5% at $2.9013/lb