General trend
- Equity markets have generally pared gains.
- Hang Seng reversed gain amid pullback in TECH index; Tech earnings in focus (including Kuaishou Technology, Meitu, Xiaomi, AAC Technologies).
- Nikkei 225 has pared gain, currently trades near the opening level [Autos, Iron & Steel and Air Transportation firms rise; Financial and Marine Transportation cos. lag].
- Shanghai Composite ended morning trading modestly higher (+0.3%) [Consumer Staples index again outperforms; IT index declines; Financials lag ahead of upcoming bank earnings]; Aluminum Corp of China rises over 8% following earnings.
- S&P ASX 200 has moved modestly higher [Resources index rises; Woolworths drops ahead of earnings report (on Thursday), weighs on Consumer Staples index; Utilities decline on AGL ex-dividend; Telecom index drops on Telstra ex-dividend].
Headlines/Economic data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened 0.0%.
- (AU) AUSTRALIA Q2 CONSTRUCTION WORK DONE Q/Q: 0.8% V 2.8%E.
- WOR.AU Reports FY21 (A$) Statutory Net 281M v 171M y/y; EBITA (A$) 468M v 743M y/y; Rev 9.5B v 13.1B y/y.
- APA.AU Reports FY21 (A$) Adj Net 281.8M v 311.8M y/y; Rev 2.61B v 2.59B y/y.
- (NZ) New Zealand July Trade Balance (NZD): -0.4B v +0.3B prior.
- (AU) Queensland in Australia to halt any interstate travel for 2-weeks.
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Assistant Gov Hawkesby: Decided not to raise interest rates last week because of communication challenge and not economic risks; Considered raising interest rate by 50bps at last meeting in Aug (yesterday after the close).
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +0.1%.
- (JP) Japan to spend additional ¥1.4T on COVID, using reserves – Nikkei.
- (JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: Seeking to expand state of emergency to 8 additional prefectures.
- (JP) Said that Japan will expand subsidies for purchases of Electric Vehicles (EV), Ministry to seek ¥33.5B in FY22 budget for the program (~double FY21) – Nikkei.
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Member Nakamura: The economy is picking up as a trend, exports likely to increase steadily on robust global demand and recovery in capex.
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.3%
- (KR) Nominee for South Korea’s financial regulator, Koh Seung-beom, it may be difficult to recognize cryptocurrency as a financial asset in light of international trends.
- Reminder tomorrow BOK to hold a rate decision, expectations remain split if they will hold or raise rates by 25bps.
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.8%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%.
- (HK) Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) increases exchange fund bills issuance by HK$5.0B in 8 tenders.
- (CN) China Ningo Port to reopen previously closed terminal on Aug 25th (terminal has throughput of ~25% port capacity) – China Press.
- (CN) Expected that US Climate Envoy John Kerry will visit China in Sept – press.
- HUAWEI.CN US government said to approve co’s license applications for auto chips – financial press.
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4728 v 6.4805 prior.
- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY50B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net inject CNY40B v Net CNY0B prior; to support month end liquidity.
- (CN) Regulators in China outlined plan to overhaul corporate bond market, issued new guidelines for corporate bonds seeking to clarify various issues (including whether the updated Securities Law covers the interbank bond market) – Chinese press.
Other
- (JP) Japan and Taiwan planning to hold talks on how to counter China aggression – press.
- 2330.TW Said to be increasing prices for advanced and mature process technologies by up to 20%, effective starting in 2022 – Digitimes.
North America
- (CN) New US intelligence report not able to give conclusive conclusion on COVID origins – press.
- (CN) SEC Chair Gensler: SEC to require all Chinese firms to say more about investor risks, requirement to apply to firms already trading in the US – press (US market hours).
Europe
- (UK) COVID hospital death rate in the UK was ~10% in the first half of August – FT.
Levels as of 01:15ET
- Hang Seng -0.4%; Shanghai Composite +0.4%; Kospi +0.2%; Nikkei225 -0.1%; ASX 200 +0.1%.
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.1%; Nasdaq100 -0.0%, Dax -0.1%; FTSE100 -0.0%.
- EUR 1.1760-1.1733; JPY 109.87-109.61; AUD 0.7261-0.7239; NZD 0.6959-0.6930.
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.7% at $1,796/oz; Crude Oil -0.6% at $67.17/brl; Copper -0.0% at $4.25/lb.
