Hang Seng Lags After Recent Earnings Reports (CK Infrastructure, Power Assets)

Aug 06 20, 06:05 GMT

General Trend:

Decliners in HK include Utility, Gaming, Telecom, Tech and Financial firms
Gainers in Australia include Resource and Energy cos.
Shanghai Composite declined by -0.4% during morning session; Consumer shares were among the decliners
Kweichow Moutai declined amid renewed reporting related to the bidding up of liquor prices
LARGAN Precision (Apple supplier) rises over 5% after issuing Jul sales data
China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly news conferences on Thursday
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expected to cut rates by 25bps (according to 1 poll)

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.2%
(AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) offers to buy total of A$500M in bonds v A$500M prior; Offers to buy bonds due 2022,2023 and 2024
(AU) Victoria Premier: Victoria red meat operations to be cut to 66% capacity; Poultry operations to run at 80% capacity
(NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Q3 Inflation Expectation Survey: 2-year Outlook: 1.4% v 1.2% prior

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.4%, Shanghai Composite +0.1%
(CN) China Daily: Price control can curb realty sector speculation; people ought to pay closer attention to new developments and new problems in the real estate market
(US) President Trump: Hong Kong will now dry up and fail (from Aug 5th)
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.9438 v 6.9752 prior
(CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips reverse repos v Skips reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY50B v Net drain CNY30B prior (4th straight skip)

Japan

Nikkei225 opened -0.2%
Nintendo [7974.JP]: Reported to raise switch output targets to 25M units – Press [expected to report earnings later today]
AstraZeneca [AZN.UK]: Reportedly Japan govt is near deal to secure vaccine supply from AstraZeneca – Nikkei
(JP) BOJ Kuroda: Coronavirus has had a severe economic impact globally – webinar comments (from Aug 5th)
(JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: second major wave of coronavirus has arrived (from Aug 5th)
(JP) Japan PM Abe: It is too early to discuss personnel issues, must focus on coronavirus; There are many infections in young Japanese; Our treatment options are expanding
(JP) Japan Aichi prefecture Govt: reported to have announced state of emergency on August 6th – Press

Korea

Kospi opened +0.5%
(KR) South Korea Jun Current Account: +$6.9B v $2.3B prior (largest surplus since Oct 2019); Balance of Goods (BOP): $5.9B v $2.5B prior
(KR) South Korea denied report that 2021 budget may rise by 10%

Other Asia

(PH) Philippines Q2 GDP Q/Q: -15.2% v -11.8%e; Y/Y: -16.5% v -9.4%e (enters technical recession)

North America

(US) Fed’s Mester (hawk, voter): Bond buying and forward guidance can provide more stimulus; Recent high frequency data signal activity has slowed; Additional forward guidance in September to hinge on economy

Europe

Levels as of 1:20 ET

Nikkei 225, -0.6%, ASX 200 +0.3% , Hang Seng -1.5%; Shanghai Composite -0.4% ; Kospi +1.2%
Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.1%; Nasdaq100 flat, Dax -0.1%; FTSE100 -0.5%
EUR 1.1885-1.1862 ; JPY 105.62-105.46 ; AUD 0.7214-0.7182 ;NZD 0.6659-0.6628
Gold +0.6% at $2,048/oz; Crude Oil -0.1% at $42.16/brl; Copper -0.5% at $2.9028/lb