Australia In Focus For Thursday

General Trend

• Nikkei 225 index has remained modestly lower.
• Shanghai Composite ended the morning session lower ahead of key May data [Industrial and Consumer indices lagged ahead of retail sales and industrial production figures; Materials and IT indices also dropped].
• Hang Seng TECH index drops over 1%; Industry Materials firms also drop.
• S&P ASX 200 pares gain [Gainers include Energy, Utility, Consumer and Financial indices; Resources index lags amid drop in Chinese metals prices].
• NY Copper FUTs pare gain on China news, China data and Fed in focus.
• Oracle declined after issuing results/guidance.
• (CN) Note: China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) rescheduled the release of May data (including industrial production and retail sales) to 7 GMT (from 2 GMT); no specific reason was given for the time change – financial press.
• Japan PM Suga to move forward after no-confidence vote failed, elections still expected for later this year.
• RBA Gov Lowe is due to speak on Jun 17th (Thurs) at 12:10 GMT [title of speech is ‘From Recovery to Expansion’].
• Australia May jobs data due on Thurs (Jun 17th) at 1:30 GMT.
• NZ Q1 GDP data is due on Jun 17th (Thurs).

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

• ASX 200 opened 0.0%.
• (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$260.1B v A$256.8B prior (fresh record high).
• SSG.AU Guides initial FY21 (A$) Net 16.75-17.5M v 10.6M y/y; Rev 211-213M v 194.9M y/y.
• GCY.AU Confirms agrees to merge with Firefly (FFR.AU) in an all share deal for implied A$0.145/shr.

Japan

• Nikkei 225 opened -0.5%.
• (JP) Japan May Trade Balance: -¥187.1B v -¥77.0Be; Adj Trade Balance: ¥43.1B v ¥241.8Be.
• (JP) JAPAN APR CORE MACHINE ORDERS M/M: 0.6% V 2.5%E; Y/Y: 6.5% V 8.0%E.
• 7974.JP Announces ‘Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ sequel to release on Nintendo Switch in 2022 – e3 presentation.
• (JP) Increasing speculation that Bank of Japan (BOJ) will not reduce its bond buying in July – press.

Korea

• Kospi opened 0.0%.
• (KR) North Korea Leader Kim: Industrial output has improved, food situation is “getting tense” – state media.
• (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) May Minutes: Price pressures increasing; process of normalizing unprecedented monetary policy taken during pandemic should not be delayed too much (overnight).
• (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) report: Exports are expected to remain resilient in H2 of the year on a series of positive external factors, including pent up demand and stimulus.

China/Hong Kong

• Hang Seng opened -0.1%; Shanghai Composite opened 0.0%.
• (CN) Note: China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) rescheduled the release of May data (including industrial production and retail sales) to 7 GMT (from 2 GMT); no specific reason was given for the time change – financial press.
• (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4078 v 6.4070 prior.
• (CN) CHINA NATIONAL RESERVE ADMIN: WILL RELEASE RESERVES OF COPPER ALUMINIUM AND ZINC IN NEAR TERM.
• (CN) China Ex SAFE Official Guan Tao: Warns CNY rise impact on exports from sustained appreciation will gradually emerge even if there is no short term impact.
• (CN) China NDRC: seeks to have ‘reasonable’ hog production [follows recent drop in pork prices].
• (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.
• (CN) China May domestic mobile phone shipments 23.0M (5G 16.7M), -32% y/y.

North America

• (US) Weekly API Crude Oil Inventories: -8.5M v -2.1M prior.
• ORCL Reports Q4 $1.54 v $1.31e, Rev $11.2B v $11.1Be; Guides Q1 Non-GAAP EPS $0.94-0.98 ($0.91-0.95 cc) v $1.03e, Rev +3-5%, or 1-3% (cc) v +3.1%e – earnings call.
• GM Said to be increasing investments in Electric Autonomous Vehicles to $35B through 2025 (prior $27B) – Press.

Europe

• (UK) Joint Committee reportedly expected to make recommendation against vaccinating those under 18 in the immediate future – UK’s Telegraph.

Levels as of 01:15ET

• Hang Seng -0.2%; Shanghai Composite -0.8%; Kospi +0.6%; Nikkei225 -0.5%; ASX 200 -0.1%.
• Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.0%; Nasdaq100 +0.1%, Dax -0.1%; FTSE100 -0.9%.
• EUR 1.2130-1.2117; JPY 110.14-110.05 ;AUD 0.7698-0.7683; NZD 0.7143-0.7118.
• Commodity Futures: Gold +0.3% at $1,860/oz; Crude Oil +0.8% at $72.66/brl; Copper -0.1% at $4.33/lb.