General Trend
- Transports, automakers and IT firms are among the gainers in Japan; Softbank rises amid renewed privatization speculation; Financials lag
- HK Financials rise after recent losses, large-cap Tech trades generally higher; Property index also rises
- Shanghai lagged during morning session; Decliners included IT and Consumer firms, Financials outperformed
- Consumer Discretionary firms are among the gainers in Australia
- South Korean chipmakers resume gains
- USD index FUTs decline; USD/CNH drops toward 6.50 (lowest since June 2018)
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.3%
- (AU) Australia Dec Westpac Consumer Confidence: 112.0 v 107.7 prior; M/M: 4.1% v 2.5% prior (10-year high)
- (NZ) New Zealand Q3 Manufacturing Activity Q/Q: +10.0% v -11.9% prior; Volume Y/Y: +17.3% v -12.2% prior
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) offers to buy A$1.0B in Semi Govt Bonds v A$1.0B prior
- FMG.AU CEO: Currently assessing a portfolio of early stage green energy projects, expect to see further recovery in steel demand outside of China
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +0.2%
- (JP) Japan likely to have FY20/21 tax Rev of ~¥44.0T (¥8.0T lower than initial estimates) due to lower corporate profits from COVID impact; new Govt bond issuance likely to be >¥100T (fresh record high) – Nikkei
- (JP) JAPAN OCT CORE MACHINE ORDERS M/M: 17.1% V 2.5%E; Y/Y: +2.8% V -11.2%E
- 9984.JP Buybacks may lead to squeeze out of minority investors; discussions happening on going private in “slow burn” buyout – press
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.1%
- (KR) South Korea Vice Fin Min An Il-Whan: to closely monitor Govt bond market and seek stability; to sell KRW176.4T in Govt bonds in 2021
- (KR) South Korea reports 686 new coronavirus cases (2nd highest daily since January)
- 000270.KR Union to stage partial strike from Dec 9-11th, plant operations to be suspended 8-hours each day as a result
- (KR) South Korea Nov Bank Lending to Households (KRW): +13.6T v +10.6T prior (largest increase since data started)
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.7%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.2%
- (CN) CHINA NOV CPI M/M: -0.6% V -0.2%E; Y/Y: -0.5% V 0.0%E (1st decline since Oct 2009); Pork prices Y/Y: -12.5% v -2.8% prior (2nd consecutive decline)
- (CN) Analysts note that China has $722B worth of Chinese stocks coming out of lockup in 2021 (highest level since 2011 and ~7% of the value of the whole China equity market) – financial press
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY20B in 7-day reverse repos v Injects CNY60B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net injection CNY10B v Net injection CNY40B prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5311 v 6.5320 prior (strongest fix since June 26,2018)
- (CN) China companies to be able to issue new class of bonds to international investors that will allow multicurrency settlement, to be called “yulan bonds” – press
Other
- (SG) Singapore Central Bank (MAS) economist survey: Maintains 2020 GDP -6.0% and 2021 GDP at +5.5%; raises CPI outlook
North America
- DASH Prices 33.0M share IPO at $102/shr v $90-95/shr indicated range
- FEYE Discloses cyber breach by suspected nation-state hackers who used “techniques not witnessed by us or our partners in the past” – filing
- (US) Weekly API Crude Oil Inventories: +1.1M v +4.1M prior
Europe
- (UK) EU will have officials stationed in Northern Ireland from January 1 (seen as a concession in Brexit talks)
- (IE) Ireland PM: There is a route to a resolution on fisheries
Levels as of 12:15ET
- Hang Seng +1.0%; Shanghai Composite -0.4%; Kospi +1.4%; Nikkei225 +1.1%; ASX 200 +0.6%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.0%, Dax +0.2%; FTSE100 +0.4%
- EUR 1.2133-1.2102; JPY 104.19-104.11; AUD 0.7443-0.7405; NZD 0.7067-0.7035
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.6% at $1,864/oz; Crude Oil -0.3% at $45.46/brl; Copper +0.5% at $3.52/lb
