General Trend
- Australia lags after holiday, Resources and Energy indices decline
- Hang Seng moved between gains and losses after over 2.5% decline on Tues; Volatility in TECH index remained in focus; CNOOC rises amid block trade
- Shanghai Consumer Staples declined during the morning session, Banks rose
- TOPIX Real Estate and Electric Appliances indices are among the gainers in Japan, Fanuc rises ahead of earnings; Transports decline
- Japanese cos. expected to report earnings include Fanuc, Hino Motor, Isetan, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Nomura Research, Omron, Cyberagent; Line Corp might also report
- Kia Motors rises ahead of earnings
- MSCI delays removal of Chinese cos. from its indices, continues to monitor potential guidance from the US Treasury
- Chinese insurance broker (TIAN RUIXIANG) priced US IPO
- China repo rates rise as PBOC again drained liquidity; Chinese press reassures on liquidity during the Lunar New Year holiday
- Australia CPI remained below target, AUD/USD declines
- US FOMC decision expected on Wed (Jan 27th)
- Samsung Electronics is due to issue final Q4 results on Thursday (Jan 28th); Focal points may include shareholder returns, auto chip shortage and CAPEX.
- Companies expected to report during the NY morning include Abbott Labs, ADP, Anthem Inc, Amphenol, Boeing, Blackstone, General Dynamics, Corning, Hess Corp, Nasdaq, Norfolk Southern, Oshkosh, Progressive Corp, AT&T, VF Corp
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened -0.1%
- (AU) AUSTRALIA Q4 CPI Q/Q: 0.9% V 0.7%E; Y/Y: 0.9% V 0.7%E; CPI Trimmed Mean (core) Q/Q: 0.4% v 0.4%e; Y/Y: 1.2% v 1.1%e
- BPT.AU Reports Q2 (A$) Rev 344M v 462M y/y; Total production 6.2 MMBOE v 6.4 y/y
- ILU.AU Reports Q4 total mineral sands production 291.5Kt v 273.0Kt y/y; Rev A$280.2M v A$394.7M y/y
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +0.4%
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: ETF Purchased aimed at lower risk premium, not buying to boost stock prices; operations are for easing of overall economy; BOJ owns 7% of Japan stock market (not 6%) – speaking to Parliament
- (JP) BOJ Gov Kuroda: Feel responsible for not achieving the price target; have done the utmost in monetary easing – Parliament comments (yesterday after the close)
- (JP) Japan expected to extend its state of emergency is parts of Japan that are still seeing high numbers of COVID cases – Japan press
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.1%
- (KR) South Korea Jan Consumer Confidence: 95.4 v 91.2 prior
- 005930.KR Reportedly plans to boost FY21 chip capex to KRW35T, +20% y/y (~$31.8B) v ~KRW29T y/y; will focus on Xi’an No 2 plant in china and Pyeongtaek No 2 plant in Korea – Korean press
- 034220.KR Reports Q4 (KRW) Net 620.9B v -1.8T y/y; Op 685.4B v -421.9B y/y; Rev 7.46T v 7.2Te
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.6%; Shanghai Composite opened -0.1%
- 6688.HK China PBOC Gov Yi Gang: relevant agencies are still investigating issues related to monopolies at Ant Group; matters are complicated and some risks are related to consumer privacy, IPO could resume ones problems are resolved – World Economic Forum
- (CN) China Dec Industrial Profits Y/Y: 20.1% v 15.5% prior; YTD Y/Y: 4.1% v 2.4% prior
- (CN) China Housing Ministry sent a task force to Shenzhen and Shanghai – Xinhua
- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY180B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY2B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY100B v Net drain CNY78B prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4665 v 6.4847 prior
- (CN) China Securities Times: Markets should not over amplify impact and size of OMO operations ahead of Lunar New Year; PBOC is expected to moderately increase liquidity release by restarting 14-day reverse repo and conducting MLF operations earlier
- China Iron and Steel Association (CISA): Expects China 2021 steel products demand will see ‘slight’ increase; China steel exports will continue to decline in 2021, imports to rise
- China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) putting together measures to accelerate steel production cuts – press
Other
- 2330.TW Intel to outsource 3-Nano chips production to Taiwan Semi in 2022 – DigiTImes
North America
- (US) House of Representatives will not have votes during the weeks of Feb 8th and Feb 15th; March Recess has been canceled (in line) – Aide
Europe
- (UK) PM Johnson said to have rebuffed calls from Home Sec Patel for temporary closure of borders and hotel quarantine for all arrivals – press
- (EU) Germany calls on EU to block exports of COVID vaccines – FT
Levels as of 12:15ET
- Hang Seng +0.2%; Shanghai Composite +0.2%; Kospi -0.0%; Nikkei225 +0.3%; ASX 200 -0.7%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.5%, Dax -0.3%; FTSE100 -0.4%
- EUR 1.2170-1.2153; JPY 103.75-103.58; AUD 0.7763-0.7730; NZD 0.7245-0.7224
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.3% at $1,845/oz; Crude Oil +0.5% at $52.86/brl; Copper -0.2% at $3.61/lb
