General trend
- Asian indices have remained lower after the negative openings; Recent drop in oil prices weighs on energy cos.; Tech trades generally lower after 3% decline on the Nasdaq; Financials trade mixed
- Nikkei declined on BOJ comments, Topix rose [Banks index rises over 2%; Large Nikkei component Fast Retailing declines; Softbank Group also dropped; Nikkei has declined to below 30K]
- ASX 200 has pared decline [Energy and REIT indices cut losses; Newcrest Mining declined]
- Hang Seng is closer to the lows of the session [TECH index declines over 2%; Li Ning declines after issuing earnings]
- Shanghai Composite ended the morning session near the opening level [decliners included Consumer Staples, Energy, Financial and Property indices]
- Fedex rose following earnings report, Nike declined
- BOJ Gov Kuroda to hold post rate decision press conference at 6:30 GMT
Headlines/Economic data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened -0.2%
- Newcrest Mining [NCM.AU]: Assessing impact of 2-week travel ban to Papua New Guinea; Sees no production impact from ban
- (AU) Australia Preliminary Feb Retail Sales M/M: -1.1% v +0.4%e
- (AU) Australia sells A$1.0B v A$1.0B indicated in 0.50% Sept 2026 bonds, avg yield: 0.9577% v 0.5434% prior, bid to cover 3.5x v 5.7x prior
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$163.5B v A$163.1B prior
- (NZ) RBNZ buys NZ$220M v NZ$210M prior in government bonds as part of QE v NZ$220M sought
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) offers to buy a total of NZ$630M in government bonds next week under QE program v NZ$630M prior
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened -0.8%, Shanghai Composite -1.1%
- (CN) Senior Biden Administration Official: Talks between US and China officials were substantive, serious and direct; Officials to resume talks at 23:30 ET/03:30 GMT (**Note: equates to 7:30 PM local time in Alaska); Officials to hold another session of talks between 13:00 ET/17:00 GMT on Friday (March 18th)
- (US) Senior Biden Administration Official: Will use remaining hours to outline same messages we have consistently delivered in Public – Press
- (US) Sec of State Blinken: will tell Chinese counterparts that the US is committed to strengthening the rules-based order – press
- (CN) China’s Yang Jiechi: US and China have many common global interests; US-China trade has seen a lot of progress but we need more
- (CN) China Foreign Ministry spokesperson: No plans at this time to discuss any potential Xi-Biden meeting
- (CN) US Lawmakers said to have reintroduced a bill that would revoke China trade relations status with the US – SCMP
- (CN) China Securities journal: China Finance Ministry has allocated CNY1.77T to the 2021 New local bonds quota
- (CN) China PBoC To auction CNY5.0B in 6-month bills in Hong Kong on Thursday, Mar 25th
- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net CNY0B v CNY0B prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5098 v 6.4859 prior
- (CN) China Finance Ministry sells 50-year bonds; Avg Yield: 3.76% v 3.90% prior, bid-to-cover: 3.28x v 2.72x prior
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -1.0%
- (JP) BANK OF JAPAN (BOJ) LEAVES INTEREST RATE ON EXCESS RESERVES (IOER) UNCHANGED AT -0.10%; AS EXPECTED; Maintains 10-year JGB yield target (YCC) of ‘around 0.00%’ (as expected); Confirms to set YCC yield range around 25bps on either side of the target vs 20bps prior]; Removes pledge to purchase ETFs at annual pace of ¥6.0T (as speculated); To only buy ETFs that track TOPIX; Introducing fixed rate purchase ops for consecutive days ; Can strengthen fixed rate operations to stop significant rate increases; To introduce scheme to mitigate profit impact on banks
- (JP) JAPAN FEB NATIONAL CPI Y/Y: -0.4% V -0.4%E, CPI EX-FRESH FOOD (CORE) Y/Y: -0.4% V -0.4%E (highest core reading since Sept 2020)
- (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Kato: Difficult to resume Go To Travel soon, Need to watch the situation
Korea
- (KR) South Korea President Moon approval hits record low at 37% – Gallup poll
- Kospi opened -0.1%
North America
- (US) White House reportedly looking at mid-May to begin easing air travel restrictions with Mexico and Canada and inbound travel from UK, Europe, and Brazil; White House declined to comment on the report – CNBC
Europe
- AstraZeneca [AZN.UK]: (EU) EMA statement on vaccine: concludes AstraZeneca COVID vaccine benefits outweigh risks; vaccine is not associated with blood clots; says vaccine is safe and effective
- (FR) France PM Castex: New measures will begin Friday at midnight and last for four weeks; will be implemented in 16 departments regions including Paris
- (EU) Pres Biden said to be considering new sanctions to block Nord Stream 2 pipeline – press
- (IT) Italy Export Credit Agency guaranteed €86M in loans from Greensill Bank, the loans were made to Sanjeev Gupta’s steel subsidiary in Italy, cites filing – financial press
Levels as of 01:20 ET
- Nikkei 225, -1.3%, ASX 200 -0.6% , Hang Seng -1.8%; Shanghai Composite -1.6% ; Kospi -0.6%%
- Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.1%, Dax flat; FTSE100 -1.5%
- EUR 1.1920-1.1902 ; JPY 109.13-108.83 ; AUD 0.7776-0.7723 ;NZD 0.7183-0.7150
- Gold -0.1% at $1,730/oz; Crude Oil +0.4% at $60.25/brl; Copper +0.2% at $4.0720/lb
