General trend
- Equity markets are generally off of the session highs, despite the mostly higher opens; Modest moves have been seen thus far; Financials generally underperform amid recent drop in 10-yr UST yield.
- Hang Seng opened higher after the 3-day holiday, but has since turned negative [TECH index reversed opening gain]; COSCO Shipping Holdings rises over 25% on Q1 guidance.
- Shanghai Composite has moved lower after the flat open [Consumer Staples index has dropped over 2.5%].
- Nikkei has pared the opening gain [Topix Pharma and Financial-related indices decline; Iron & Steel and Marine Transportation indices outperform (Nippon Yusen rises on raised guidance); Toshiba expected to move higher on M&A news].
- Australian equities are closer to the session highs [IT index rises over 1% (EML Payments gains on acquisition); Energy and Consumer Staples indices also rise; Resources and Financial indices lag].
- South Korean Q1 earnings in focus [Samsung declines by less than 1%; LG Electronics trades flat].
- Companies expected to report during the NY morning include MSC Industrial Direct, RPM International, Schnitzer Steel, Simply Good Foods.
Headlines/Economic data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.0%.
- (AU) Australia Mar AiG Performance of Construction Index: 61.8 v 57.4 prior (record high).
- (AU) Australia PM Morrison: Not criticizing EU for vaccine delivery delays to Australia; Australia will seek export licenses for 3.8M doses of coronavirus vaccine.
- (AU) Australia sells A$1.2B v A$1.2B indicated in 1.00% Dec 2030 bonds, avg yield 1.6636%, bid to cover 2.53x.
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +0.2%.
- (JP) Japan said to be cancelling contracts to upgrade F-15 fleet – Press; Follow Up: Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Kato: Japan reviewing the F-15 Upgrade plan and considering cost reductions.
- 6502.JP CEO: Confirms Toshiba has received proposal from CVC Capital, board to meet on Wednesday (Apr 7th) To consider transaction.
- (JP) Japan Mar FX Reserves $1.37T v $1.38T prior.
- (JP) Japan Parliament approves Bank of Japan (BOJ) nomination Nakagawa.
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) announcement related to daily bond buying operation: raises buying of 5-10 and 10-25 years (in line with guidance).
- (JP) Japan Govt Spokesperson: There are no talks of Japan and US boycotting China Olympics in 2022.
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: BOJ Can keep interest rates low as market trusts JGBs – speaking to parliament.
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.1%
- 005930.KR Reports prelim Q1 (KRW) Op 9.30T v 8.9Te; Rev 65.0T v 61.5Te.
- 066570.KR Reports Prelim Q1 (KRW) Op 1.52T v 1.20Te; Rev 18.81T v 17.82Te.
- (KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: IMF Report shows Economic path could be above forecast; Exports to be supported by US Economic recovery.
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.6%; Shanghai Composite opened 0.0%.
- (CN) China Q1 new registrations of new energy vehicles (NEV): 466K v 348K y/y – China Ministry of Public Security.
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5384 v 6.5527 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 Net drain CNY10B prior.
- 9618.HK Withdraws fintech unit, JD Digits, IPO from Shanghai’s Star Market.
Other
- (SG) Singapore to release Q1 advanced GDP for Wed April 14th (also expecting their bi-annual policy meeting the same day).
North America.
- (US) Fed’s Barkin (voter, hawk): More jobs will come back as US economy reopens, I expect to see a really strong spring and summer – speaking at Greenwood, SC Chamber of Commerce.
- (US) Pres Biden: we’re making incredible progress on COVID but there is also bad news; new variants are spreading and moving quickly, and cases are rising.
- (US) Weekly API Crude Oil Inventories: -2.6M v +3.9M prior.
- (US) FEB JOLTS JOB OPENINGS: 7.367M V 6.900ME (highest since 2019).
Europe
- AZN European Medicines Agency (EMA) spokesperson: early comments from Cavaleri on AstraZeneca vaccine were personal and preliminary.
- CSGN.CH May report losses related to Greenstill of CHF1.4B ($1.5B) – US financial press.
Levels as of 01:15ET
- Hang Seng -0.8%; Shanghai Composite -0.5%; Kospi +0.2%; Nikkei225 +0.1%; ASX 200 +0.5%.
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.0%; Nasdaq100 -0.1%, Dax +0.0%; FTSE100 +0.2%.
- EUR 1.1878-1.1865; JPY 109.89-109.58; AUD 0.7678-0.7651; NZD 0.7069-0.7048.
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.2% at $1,739/oz; Crude Oil +0.5% at $59.63/brl; Copper -0.4% at $4.09/lb.
