Equities Generally Rise After Gains On Wall Street, China Inflation Data Is Due On Thurs

Dec 08 21, 06:05 GMT

General trend

USD index declines.
Yuan trades at strongest level since May 2018.
AUD extends gain; Australian bond yields pared rise.
US equity FUTs have remained modestly higher in Asia.
Nikkei 225 has extended gains.
Hang Seng has pared the opening rise; Kaisa Group was halted amid default concerns; Weibo declined in HK debut.
Shanghai Composite extended gains during the morning session; Consumer firms rise ahead of inflation data; Property index lags after prior gains.
S&P ASX 200 has extended gains; Consumer Discretionary and Resources indices outperform.
RBA Gov Lowe is due to speak on Thurs at 10:05 PM GMT [Payments: the Future? – to Payments Summit 2021 – Online].
Companies due to report during the NY morning include Brown-Forman, Campbell Soup, CooTek, Thor Industries, United Natural Foods, Vera Bradley

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.6%.
(AU) Australia Treasurer Frydenberg to announces reform to the “buy now, pay later”, crypto and digital wallets business later today (follows RBA study launched in late summer).
CBA.AU Subsidiary, Avanteos Investments, pleads guilty to 18 criminal charges for charging deceased superannuation members.

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened +1.2%.
(JP) JAPAN Q3 FINAL GDP Q/Q: -0.9% V -0.8%E; GDP ANNUALIZED Q/Q: -3.6% V -3.1%E.
(JP) According to a former Bank of Japan (BOJ) official, the BOJ is likely to scale down longer COVID aid (narrow the scope) but keep this more limited version in place for longer term – Japan press.
(JP) Japan Govt said to be considering tying tax incentives to wage increases, tax breaks for gas companies hit by reregulation – Press.
(JP) Japan Oct Current Account: ¥1.18T v ¥1.03Te; Adj Current Account: ¥1.03B v ¥999.2Be; Trade Balance (BoP): ¥166.7B v ¥128.8Be.
(JP) Japan PM Kishida: Capital gains tax revision is one option for distribution – speaking to parliament.
(JP) Japan Nov Eco Watchers Current Survey: 56.3 v 57.4e (highest since Nov 2013); Outlook Survey: 53.4 v 57.7e.
(JP) Japan Nov Bank Lending Y/Y: 0.6% v 0.9% prior; Bank Lending (ex-trusts) Y/Y: 0.5% v 0.8% prior.
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Official Amamiya: Watching impact of virus infection closely; Unclear how coronavirus variant will impact domestic and overseas economies; In light of Japan’s price situation, you can see the BOJ for now has no need to modify its massive monetary stimulus program.

Korea

Kospi opened +1.0%.
(KR) South Korea PM: South Korea to report >7.0K coronavirus cases (record high).
(KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: Housing prices have markedly stabilized on the back of housing supply measures.

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.4%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.6%.
9898.HK Hong Kong IPO opens -6.1% at HK$256.20/shr v pricing of HK$272.80/shr.
(CN) China companies’ IPOs in US to slow in short term, due to SEC rules – China Economic Daily.
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.3677 v 6.3738 prior.
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B prior; Net CNY0B v Net drain CNY90B prior.
(CN) China MoF sells 2-year and 5-year bonds; Sells 2-year bond, avg yield 2.4576%; bid to cover 3.70x; Sells 5-year bond; avg yield 2.67%; bid to cover 3.33x.
(CN) China 2022 local government bond supply might remain ‘high’ amid spending to support growth [in line] – Chinese press.
(CN) Fitch: Sees mainland China 2022 GDP to slow to 4.8%, from 8.0% in 2021.

Other

(TW) Taiwan Nov Trade Balance: $5.7B v $5.4Be; Exports Y/Y: 30.2% v 22.8%e (record high, yesterday after the close).
(SG) Singapore Central Bank (MAS) Economist Survey: Raises 2021 GDP to 6.9% (prior 6.6%); Raises 2021 core CPI outlook 0.9% (prior 0.7%).

North America

STT Blackrock to pull most of its $2.0T ETF assets in US from State Street and move them to Citigroup, JPMorgan, Bank of New York, to reduce its reliance on State Street’s custody services.
(US) Commerce Sec Raimondo: US and UK have not yet agreed to begin formal talks on steel trade.
(US) Senate Banking Panel to hold hearing on Stable Coins on Dec 14th.
AAPL Reportedly has told suppliers to accelerate iPhone production in Nov-Jan period; Supply chain woes will leave Apple about 15M units short of its 230M iPhone production plan set at the start of 2021 – Nikkei.
(US) House of Representatives passes bill to make passing debt limit bill quicker; the final vote was 222 to 212.

Europe

(UK) Govt considering a work from home plan (due to Omicron variant) for Christmas and New Years and any economic impact that may have – UK press.
NESN.CH Nestle cuts stake in L’Oreal to 20.1% at €400/shr; Initiates new CHF20B share buyback.

Levels as of 00:15ET

Hang Seng -0.2%; Shanghai Composite +0.8%; Kospi +0.3%; Nikkei225 +1.3%; ASX 200 +1.4%.
Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.4%; Nasdaq100 +0.5%, Dax +0.0%; FTSE100 -0.1%.
EUR 1.1296-1.1264; JPY 113.62-113.36; AUD 0.7143-0.7115; NZD 0.6801-0.6769.
Commodity Futures: Gold +0.3% at $1,790/oz; Crude Oil -0.3% at $71.81/brl; Copper -0.1% at $4.34/lb.