General Trend
- Australian equities supported by the rise in Financials; Consumer stocks rise as South Australia announced lockdown measures
- NAB temporarily closed all of its branches in Australia, cited ‘physical security threat’
- Financials trade generally higher in Shanghai, gov’t bond yields rise; Consumer firms lag
- Property and Financial firms rise in HK; Geely extends gains after hitting 52-week high, announced collaboration with Daimler; China auto dealer group commented on possible industry support
- Japanese equities decline amid the overnight rise in the Yen; Transports and Financials are among the decliners, automakers also trade generally lower
- Japanese officials continue to push for regional bank mergers
- Tokyo expected to raise its COVID-19 alert level
- Australia Q3 wage data missed ests, annualized pace declined to historic low; Australia Oct jobs data due on Thursday
- RBA Gov Lowe: Economy is on the road back in recovery, though it is uneven
- China set the initial pricing guidance for EUR-denominated bond offering [3-tranches]
- BOK again sells more monetary stabilization bonds than indicated
- RBNZ to conduct probe following data leak
- US FDA: Authorizes first COVID-19 Test for Self-Testing at Home
- Shanghai Exchange said it will launch international copper contract on Nov 19th (Thurs)
- Australia NSW goes into strict 6 day lockdown to combat COVID
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened slightly lower
- (AU) AUSTRALIA Q3 WAGE PRICE INDEX Q/Q: 0.1% V 0.2%E; Y/Y: 1.4% V 1.5%E (lowest level since data set started)
- (NZ) New Zealand Q3 PPI Input Q/Q: +0.6% v -0.9% prior; PPI Output Q/Q: -0.3% v -0.2% prior
- (NZ) RBNZ buys NZ$330M v NZ$325M prior in government bonds as part of QE v N$330M sought
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Gov Lowe: bond buying is lowering costs of Govt borrowing, but also rates across economy; right to borrow against future income with pandemic and re-pay through growth; Need to keep strong trade relations with China
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Offers to buy A$1.0B in Semi Govt bonds v A$1.0B prior
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand: Has engaged Deloite on internal process review after information was disclosed to financial services firms before being made public in Nov
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -0.6%
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BoJ) Gov Kuroda: New Deposit facility is prudence policy, not monetary; New deposit facility is for stability of financial system; ETF purchases are conducted as part of bold monetary easing; see CPI remaining below 0% for now
- (JP) Japan Oct Trade Balance: ¥872.9B v ¥300.0Be; Adjusted Trade Balance: ¥314.3B v ¥117.4Be
- (JP) Japan Govt ruling coalition looking at spending ¥12T over 5-years, starting FY21/22, for disaster proofing infrastructure – Nikkei
- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Japan will continue to target balanced budget in FY25; Subsidies for regional bank consolidation is an option being considered
- (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Kato: Ministry will appropriately address support for airlines; Closely watching movements on gasoline vehicles in foreign markets
- Japan MoF sells ¥1.2T v ¥1.2T indicated in 0.4% 20-year JGBs: avg yield: 0.3880% v 0.3940% prior; bid to cover 3.6x v 3.9x prior
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.4%
- 005380.KR Expected to face lawsuit over fires in electric vehicles (EV) amid recall – press
- (KR) South Korea Oct foreign currency deposits at banks $93.32B v $85.43B prior (record high)
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.1%; Shanghai Composite opened -0.1%
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY100B in 7-day reverse repos v Injects CNY50B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY50B v Net drain CNY70B prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5593 v 6.5762 prior ( Strongest since June 27th 2018)
- (CN) China Finance Ministry (MOF) sets initial pricing guidance for 5-year, 10-yer and 15-year EUR-denominated bonds
- (CN) General Office of the China State Council has issued guidelines aimed at stabilizing grain production – Xinhua
Other
- (TW) Trade officials from the US and Taiwan are scheduled to hold talks on November 20th – Taiwan press
North America
- (US) FDA: Authorizes First COVID-19 Test for Self-Testing at Home
- (US) Weekly API Crude Oil Inventories: +4.2M v -5.1M prior
- (US) SEPT NET LONG-TERM TIC FLOWS: $108.9B V $27.8B PRIOR; TOTAL NET TIC FLOWS: -$79.9B V $86.3B PRIOR; China Total holding of US Treasuries: $1.061T v $1.068T prior; Japan Total Holdings of US Treasuries: $1.276T v $1.278T prior (net seller for 3rd consecutive month, largest sale since 2018)
- (US) Key county, Wayne, in Michigan has failed to certify vote by deadline; deadlock to be referred to Michigan Board – press
Europe
- (UK) PM Johnson said to back real budget increase for defense – Press
- (IE) Ireland PM Martin: EU and UK can see “the landing zones” on a trade deal, but UK will have to compromise – Daily Mail
Levels as of 12:15ET
- Hang Seng +0.5%; Shanghai Composite +0.4%; Kospi +0.3%; Nikkei225 -0.8%; ASX 200 +0.5%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 -0.0%, Dax -0.1%; FTSE100 -0.2%
- EUR 1.1894-1.1844; JPY 104.22-104.05; AUD 0.7301-0.7272; NZD 0.6900-0.6875
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.4% at $1,878/oz; Crude Oil -0.1% at $41.39/brl; Copper 0.0% at $3.21/lb
