Generally Quiet And Higher Equity Session Seen

Dec 23 21, 06:45 GMT

General trend

USD trades generally firmer.
Hang Seng has traded modestly higher; JD.com declines by >10% on Tencent stake sale news, Tencent rises by over 4%; Alibaba drops amid continued regulatory concerns.
Shanghai Composite lagged during the morning session; Property index declined.
Nikkei 225 has remained slightly higher.
S&P ASX 200 also saw slight rise.
China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly news conferences on Thurs.

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.0%.
SYR.AU Executes offtake agreement with Tesla (shares +23%).
BGA.AU Guides FY22 (A$) EBITDA 195-215M v 142M y/y; Sees upward pressure on farm gate milk prices to remain for the year (shares -11%).
EVN.AU Withdraws from Murchison JV; Effective Jan 17th; Enterprise Metals to retain the project (shares +11%).
(AU) Australia Nov Private Sector Credit M/M: 0.9% v 0.5% prior; Y/Y: 6.6% v 5.7% prior.
(NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Nov Housing Lending growth slowed to 0.8% m/m, and increased 11.0% y/y; Annual growth below the peak in July.

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened +0.5%.
(JP) Japan PM Kishida: Aiming for a V shaped recovery from pandemic.
(JP) Japan Govt confirms that it expects FY22/23 new bond issuance at ¥36.9T, down ~¥6.7T vs initial est for FY21/22 ; Revenues at ¥65.2T; Confirms size of budget at ¥107.6T, largest budget in history ( Size in line with speculation).
(JP) Experts continue to puzzle over why Japan has seen a sudden drop in COVID cases and deaths recently, -99% from peak, while the rest of the world is spiking.
(JP) Japan Investors Net Buying of Foreign Bonds: -¥1.6T v +¥457.0B prior; Foreign Net Buying of Japan Stocks: -¥841.3B v -¥602.9B prior.
4523.JP Confirms Japan’s First Committee on New Drugs of The Pharmaceutical Affairs and Food Sanitation Council seeks additional data; Aducanumab remains under review.
(JP) Japan Govt confirms real FY22 GDP Estimates at 3.2%, up from 2.2% – (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Matsuno: Not thinking of easing coronavirus restrictions now; Expects economic outlook to return to pre coronavirus levels by Mar (In line).
(JP) Japan Industry Ministry (METI): Expects Jan quarter [Q1] crude steel production -1.4% q/q.
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: monetary Policy played key role in early recovery from pandemic; Interest rates most important tools for monetary policy, have indrect impact on economy on FX moves and Equities.

Korea

Kospi opened +0.5%.
(KR) South Korea Unification Min Lee In-young: Korean peninsula is at an “extremely critical juncture” between peace and tensions”; next year uncertainties could increase if the current deadlock in nuclear negotiations and lack of dialogue continue.
(KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) notes that Housing prices and household debt are major risks to financial stability – Yonhap.
(KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) To join US Fed FIMA Repo Facility that was created in Mar 2020.

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.2%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%.
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.3651 v 6.3703 prior.
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B prior and CNY10B in 14-day reverse repos v CNY10B prior; Net inject CNY10B v Net inject CNY10B prior.
(CN) China Sec Journal: PBOC expected to maintain ample liquidity through early next year.
700.HK Declares interim special dividend payable in JD.com shares; To pay 1 Class A share of JD.com for every 21 shares held by shareholders.
941.HK Completes 422M share strategic placement and upsized 436.0M (prior 253.7M) online offering subscription at CNY57.58/shr.
(CN) China announces Lockdown in Xi’an City [capital of Shaanxi Province in central China] due to increasing coronavirus cases.
(CN) Follow Up: China City Xi’an has cancelled all domestic flights after locking down the city over coronavirus.
(CN) China Nov Swift Global Payments (CNY): 2.14% v 1.85% prior.

Other

(TW) Taiwan Cabinet planning to advance an additional NT$430B of loans under the three “Invest Taiwan” programs for private businesses to encourage local investment – local press.

North America

INTC China regulator approves Intel Hynix deal with conditions – press.
(US) Supreme Court to hear arguments on Coronavirus vaccine mandates on Jan 7th.
(US) Biden administration to extend pause on student loan payments through May 2022 (set to expire early 2022).

Europe

(UK) Nov Car Manufacturing 75.8K unit, -28.7% y/y; YTD car manufacturing 797.3K units, -6.2% y/y – SMMT.

Levels as of 00:20 ET

Nikkei 225, +0.6%, ASX 200 +0.3% , Hang Seng +0.2%; Shanghai Composite flat ; Kospi +0.2%.
Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.1%; Nasdaq100 flat, Dax -0.1%; FTSE100 +0.5%.
EUR 1.1342-1.1318 ; JPY 114.21-114.07 ; AUD 0.7221-0.7195 ;NZD 0.6822-0.6795.
Gold % at $/oz; Crude Oil +0.3% at $72.96/brl; Copper -0.2% at $4.3795/lb.