Nikkei Lags Amid Stronger Yen

Aug 16 21, 06:26 GMT

General trend

Commodity currencies trade lower amid weaker US and CN data, AUD lags; RBA Aug Minutes due on Tuesday (Aug 17th).
Financials trade generally lower amid drop in 10-yr Treasury yields.
Nikkei has extended decline amid stronger Yen [Decliners include Exporters and Financials]; Tokyo Electron is due to report earnings.
Hang Seng has remained lower [TECH index drops over 2%].
Shanghai Composite outperforms [Property and IT indices rise over 1% during morning session].
S&P ASX 200 has declined after the flat open [Financials decline; Gold miners rise; Materials index supported by results from Bluescope Steel; Consumer Discretionary index rises following results from JB Hi-Fi].
BHP is due to report FY21 results on Tuesday (Aug 17th).

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened 0.0%.
(NZ) RBNZ Shadow Board (NZIER): Calling for tightening at August 18th meeting.
BSL.AU Reports FY21 (A$) underlying Net 1.17B v 353M y/y; underlying EBIT 1.72B v 0.56B y/y; Rev 12.9B v 11.3B y/y; Announces A$500M share buyback; Special dividend A$0.19/shr.
BPT.AU Reports FY21 (A$) underlying Net 363.0M v 461.0M y/y; Rev 1.56B v 1.73B y/y.
(AU) Sydney, Australia expands lockdown to entire NSW for 1 week; Melbourne expected to be extended into Sept (update from Aug 14).

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened -0.6%.
(JP) JAPAN Q2 PRELIMINARY GDP Q/Q: 0.3% V 0.1%E; GDP ANNUALIZED Q/Q: 1.3% V 0.5%E.
(JP) Japan Govt said to be considering extending state of emergency to additional prefectures as soon as this week, after recording 20K new COVID cases in a day – Press.
(JP) Japan Govt said to be considering extending state of emergency to additional prefectures as soon as this week – Press.
(JP) Japan Jun Final Industrial Production M/M: 6.5% v 6.2% prelim; Y/Y: 23.0% v 22.6% prelim.

Korea

Kospi closed for holiday.
(KR) South Korea records 1.5K new COVID cases (lower on less testing over the weekend).

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened -0.1%; Shanghai Composite opened -0.1%.
(CN) CHINA JULY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION Y/Y: 6.4% V 7.9%E (slowest growth since Aug 2020); Industrial Production YTD Y/Y: 14.4% v 14.6%e.
(CN) CHINA JULY RETAIL SALES Y/Y: 8.5% V 10.9%E; Retail Sales YTD Y/Y: 20.7% v 21.2%e.
(CN) China Stats Agency (NBS): China to maintain stable economic recovery during H2; Prices expected to increase ‘mildly’.
(CN) CHINA JULY YTD PROPERTY INVESTMENT: 12.7% V 12.9%E.
(CN) CHINA JULY YTD FIXED URBAN ASSETS Y/Y: 10.3% V 11.3%E.
(CN) CHINA JULY NEW HOMES PRICES M/M: 0.3% V 0.4% PRIOR; Y/Y: 4.6% V 4.7% PRIOR.
(CN) CHINA PBOC CONDUCTS CNY600B V CNY700B MATURING (V 100B PRIOR) IN 1-YEAR MEDIUM-TERM LENDING FACILITY (MLF) AT 2.95% V 2.95% PRIOR; Liquidity released in July RRR cut can partially repay MLF.
(CN) China Sec Journal: PBOC May increase Reverse Repo injections during the week.
(HK) Macau said to be allowing certain recreational facility to re-open on Aug 18th.
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4717 v 6.4799 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 CNY0B prior.
(CN) China July railway passengers 1.26T passengers/km, +70.9% y/y; Railway freight, -6.8% y/y.

Other

North America

(CA) Canada Governor General dissolves parliament, triggering an election for Sept 20th.
KKR Hyatt confirms to acquire Apple Leisure for $2.7B.
(US) Fed’s Kashkari (dove, non-voter): Want a few more strong jobs reports before taper starts; gal is to let labor market back to at least pre-COVID levels.
(US) Said that 9 Democrats in the House of Representatives have said no to Speaker Pelosi’s procedural compromise.
BILI Daily active user (DAU) said to now exceed 65M (ahead of Youku, and behind Tencent and Iqiyi) – Chinese press.

Europe

(UK) Aug Rightmove House Prices M/M: -0.3% v +0.7% prior (first decline this year); Y/Y: 5.6% v 5.7% prior.
(UK) PM Johnson said to be looking to delay his Cabinet reshuffle until the COP26 climate change summit in November – financial press.

Levels as of 01:15ET

Hang Seng -0.7%; Shanghai Composite +0.4%; Kospi closed for holiday; Nikkei225 -1.7%; ASX 200 -0.4%.
Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 -0.1%, Dax -0.4%; FTSE100 -0.4%.
EUR 1.1801-1.1790; JPY 109.75-109.33; AUD 0.7373-0.7337; NZD 0.7045-0.7023.
Commodity Futures: Gold -0.0% at $1,778/oz; Crude Oil -1.1% at $67.44/brl; Copper -0.6% at $4.33/lb.