USD And Yen Remain Firmer, TRY Declines

Mar 23 21, 06:10 GMT

General trend

Asian indices reversed the higher opens
Hang Seng and HK TECH indices reversed the opening gains [TECH index drops over 2.5%; Baidu rises less than 1% in HK debut; Geely extended drop after reporting earnings; Tingyi declined after earnings; Other companies that declined following earnings included Shengmu Organic Milk, ENN Energy, Greentown China, China Molybdenum]
Shanghai has also moved lower by over 1% after opening higher [Consumer names decline]
Nikkei continues to struggle in the aftermath of Friday’s BOJ decision [TOPIX Banks index drops over 2%]
Australian markets are essentially flat [Gainers included REITs and Telecoms, Aussie yields pared rise; Energy, Consumer Discretionary and Financial indices declined; Sigma Health rose on earnings;]
Capitaland Ltd rose by over 12% on restructuring plan
Top Glove dropped on ex-dividend
China issues warning related to overseas funds
Japan to use reserve funds to support workers and companies
South Korea 10-year yield declines after bond auction
Oracle prices $15.0B in bonds (as expected, 6 tranches)
Shanghai Aluminum trades limit down
Companies that may report earnings during the NY morning include Cheetah Mobile

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.1%
(NZ) New Zealand: To establish NZ$3.8B fund to accelerate infrastructure for new housing and measures to curb speculation in the housing market
WHC.AU Shiploading suspended at Newcastle Port due to flooding; Narrows ROM Coal Production guidance 21.4-22.0Mt (prior 21.0-22.5Mt)
(AU) Australia sells A$150M v A$150M indicated in 0.75% 2027 Indexed-Bonds, avg yield -0.7882%, bid to cover 5.17x
(AU) Summary: Australia New South Wales (NSW) experiencing what may be its largest flooding event in 60 years; costs already exceed A$2.0B with more than 9.5K insurance claims to date

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened %
7974.JP Said to be working with Niantic to develop augmented reality apps; To release Pikmin app in 2021 – Press
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Announced changes to ETF purchases will begin in April
(JP) Japan Industry Ministry METI said to be providing ¥42B in support for chip development – Nikkei
(JP) Tokyo, Japan to continue to request early store closures as part of COVID measures (scheduled to end this month) – Japan press
(JP) Japan Cabinet approves additional financial help to industries suffering from the impact of Covid (especially hotels and restaurants)
(JP) Japan Finance Ministry: To use ¥2.2T (~$20.2B) of coronavirus reserve funds
(JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: True Japan finances in severe state, still not considering raising taxes; 2025 balanced budget goal remains intact

Korea

Kospi opened +0.1%
(KR) North Korean leader Kim and China President Xi pledged to further develop bilateral ties – Xinhua
(KR) South Korea Vice Fin Min Kim: strengthen monitoring of local and overseas state bond market trends even though sentiment has calmed after government and the central bank’s effort; Govt can flexibly adjust state bond issuance volume according to demand-supply dynamics and yield curve movement and take timely action

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.4%; Shanghai Composite opened %
(CN) China Secutiries Journal: China unlikely to speed up its adjustments to interest rates
(CN) China issues retaliatory sanctions on the EU, includes travel bans on 10 individuals from the EU and 4 entities – FT
(CN) US confirms issuing sanctions against China officials over human rights abuses (as expected); UK, EU and Canada also added sanctions
(CN) China Premier Li: China 2021 economic growth may be higher than target of >6%
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5036 v 6.5191 prior
(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 said to continue certain tax breaks that were adopted during coronavirus pandemic – Press

North America

(US) Fed Chair Powell: Recovery seems to be strengthening, coming faster than expected; labor market conditions have recently improved; reiterates committed to suing full range of tools to support the economy – testimony for tomorrow
(US) SEMI Feb North America-based Manufacturers of Semi Equipment Billings: $3.14B v $3.04B prior, M/M: +3.2% v +13.4% prior; Y/Y: +32% v +29.9% prior
(US) Fed’s Bowman (voter): Will take time to reach inflation and employment goals; Easing polixy will remain until economic goals reached
(US) Treasury Sec Yellen: Reiterates may see return to full employment in 2021 – prepared testimony for Friday
JNJ Biden administration said to be worried JNJ will miss vaccine goal of 20M doses by end of March, now expected to be met by 3rd week of April – Politico
AZN.UK Urged by the US NIAID to work with data safety monitoring board (DSMB) to review efficacy data from vaccine clinical trial; concerned that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial and provided incomplete view of efficacy data – US financial press

Europe

(DE) German Chancellor Merkel: confirms tighter lockdown from April 1-5th, supermarkets only to be open April 3rd; Case numbers are rising exponentially due to UK variant, in a race to get vaccinated, in a very serious situation now

Levels as of 01:00ET

Hang Seng -1.8%; Shanghai Composite -1.4%; Kospi -0.9%; Nikkei225 -0.5%; ASX 200 -0.1%
Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 -0.5%, Dax -0.5%; FTSE100 -0.6%
EUR 1.1941-1.1923; JPY 108.88-108.69 ;AUD 0.7750-0.7697; NZD 0.7169-0.7084
Commodity Futures: Gold -0.2% at $1,734/oz; Crude Oil -1.0% at $60.95/brl; Copper -1.4% at $4.08/lb