US Equity FUTs Declined After US Official Said Iran And Russia Tried To Interfere With The Elections

General Trend

• Telecom and Tech firms decline in Hong Kong; China Unicom declines over 9% after 9-month results
• Shanghai Composite declined by less than 1% during the morning session; Consumer firms decline
• Topix Marine Transportation, Pharma and Retail indices are among the decliners in Japan
• Energy firms are among the decliners in Australia amid quarterly production updates, Financials also drop
• Offshore yuan (CNH) declines after recent gains, China said to consider move to slow inflows
• US Dollar index FUTs rise in Asia after recent declines
• Korean Won (KRW) weakened after comments from Finance Ministry
• China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly news conferences on Thursday
• Companies expected to report results during the NY morning include American Airlines, Quest Diagnostics, Dow Chemical, Freeport McMoran, W.W. Grainger, Kimberly-Clark, Coca-Cola, Southwest Airlines, Northrop Grumman, Nucor, PulteGroup, SiriusXM, AT&T, Union Pacific, Valero Energy

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

• ASX 200 opened -0.2%
• (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Dep Gov Debelle’s initial comments did not focus on monetary policy
• (AU) NAB: The release of Q3 Australia NAB business confidence was delayed by 1 week to Oct 29th (Thursday)
• (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Asst Gov Robbers: RBNZ to issue consultation on capital review plan in Nov

China/Hong Kong

• Hang Seng opened -0.2%, Shanghai Composite -0.3%
• (CN) China is said to be preparing to issue additional quota for [domestic] funds to invest in foreign securities, expected to widen the QDII quota by $10B – Chinese Press
• (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.6556 v 6.6781 prior (Strongest since July 11th, 2018)
• Ant Financial: Ant Group plans to sell up to 1.67B H-shares in Hong Kong portion of its IPO, indicates that Alibaba’s unit will subscribe for 730M A-shares as a strategic investor; China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said it approved the Shanghai portion of the Ant IPO [this was the final approval that the company needed for its upcoming IPOs]
• (US) Sec of State Pompeo: To designate US operations of six China-based media outlets as ‘foreign missions’
• (US) China State Owned Media Global Times Editor in Chief: China will retaliate against US on Media designation of 6 China media outlets as foreign missions
• (CN) China to maintain its ban related to outbound tours amid coronavirus risk, cites China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism – financial press
• (CN) China Banking and Insurance Regulator (CBIRC) Vice Chairman: China has disposed CNY1.73B in bad loans in Sept
• (CN) China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT): China likely to have vehicle sales growth in 2021; To accelerate 5G construction
• (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY50B in 7-day reverse repos v Injects CNY80B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net inject CNY0B v Net inject CNY80B prior

Japan

• Nikkei225 opened -0.5%
• (JP) Follow Up: Japan is expected to ease entry restrictions related to business trips that are up to 3 days; the government is expected to ease its curbs related to 30 countries – Japanese press
• (JP) Japan LDP Tax Chief Amari: Certain there will be a 3rd extra budget; 3rd extra budget to come around Dec 14-15th (Mon-Tues)

Korea

• Kospi opened -0.6%
• (KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: Closely monitoring FX Markets; To take actions if one sided movements occur in market to stabilize currency
• (KR) Speculation that the Bank of Korea (BOK) is buying dollars to slow the Korean Won (KRW) gains
• (KR) China and South Korea agree to extend FX swap agreement by 5-year (as expected), to expand FX swap agreement to CNY400B (~$60B) v CNY360B (~$54B) prior

Other Asia

• Dr Reddy’s Labs [DRRD.IN]: To shut all ‘key’ plants worldwide due to a data breach; the move has impacted plants located in the UK, US, India, Russia and Brazil – India press

North America

• (US) US Director of Intelligence Ratcliffe: US has determined that Iran has sent emails to Democrats; Russia and Iran have taken action to interfere with election
• (US) Pres Trump: I don’t see any way Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will be willing to do what is right for our great American workers, or our wonderful USA itself, on stimulus
• (US) Sen Maj Leader McConnell: Democrats want a ‘wheelbarrow of cash’ for states; If the sun sets today with no progress, then the Senate turns to Judge Barrett’s nomination
• (US) Pelosi spokesperson: talks today bring us closer to being able to start writing legislation on new aid bill; Pelosi and Mnuchin will talk again tomorrow

Europe

• (UK) PM Johnson office: UK agrees to restart Brexit trade talks with EU to see if it’s possible to bridge significant gaps that remain in the most difficult areas
• AstraZeneca [AZN.UK]: The deceased trial volunteer in Brazil reportedly did NOT receive the vaccine; received placebo as part of trial – press

Levels as of 1:20 ET

• Nikkei 225, -0.6%, ASX 200 -0.3% , Hang Seng -0.2%; Shanghai Composite -0.7% ; Kospi -1%
• Equity S&P500 Futures: -0.5%; Nasdaq100 -0.6%, Dax -0.5%; FTSE100 -0.4%
• EUR 1.1865-1.1838 ; JPY 104.75-104.53 ; AUD 0.7120-0.7084 ;NZD 0.6659-0.6632
• Gold -0.7% at $1,917/oz; Crude Oil -0.7% at $39.75/brl; Copper -0.5% at $3.1800/lb