mAsia Mid-Session and Weekend Update: China President Xi spooks the markets on slowing growth; while China amps up naval activity in the Pacific
***US Market Highlights***
- US markets closed for holiday Monday and will re-open Tuesday December 27th
- BA: Iran Deputy Transportation Min: Iran will only pay ~50% of announced price of $16.8B for 80 new planes from Boeing (implies ~$8.4B) - Iran's official IRNA news agency
***US markets on close Friday: Dow +0.07%, S&P500 +0.12%, Nasdaq +0.48%***
- Best Sector in S&P500: Healthcare
- Worst Sector in S&P500: Consumer Discretionary
- Biggest gainers: WMB +4.2%; RHT +3.4%; DNB +3.7%
- Biggest losers: CME -3.1%; CTAS -3.1%; BBBY -1.5%
- At the close: VIX 11.44 (+0.01pts); Treasuries: 2-yr 1.206% +-0.01bps), 10-yr 2.54% (-0.008bps), 30-yr 3.116% (-0.013bps)
***Friday and Over the Weekend***
- (IT) Italy draft decree on bank rescue plan: Italy govt will be able to provide guarantee of banks' debt until June 30, 2017
- (CN) China President Xi: Said to express openness for China to have growth below 6.5% target; due to rising debt and concerns about the global outlook after Trump's election victory. Target does not have to be met if doing so creates too much risk. China will report PMI data on Dec 31st.
- (RU) Russia has told the US it would like to delay for several days ceasefire in Syria's Aleppo - press over weekend
- (CL) Magnitude 7.6 earthquake rocked southern Chile Sunday morning; No fatalities or major damage were reported
***Key economic data***
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Monetary Policy Oct 31st-Nov 1st Meeting Minutes : Most members shares recognition that momentum towards price goal being maintained
***Asia Session Notable Observations, Speakers and Press***
- In Asia Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore markets are closed.
- Chinese markets opened lower by 0.5% after President Xi warned about growth.
- (CN) China holding military exercises in Pacific Ocean including its Liaoning aircraft carrier; seen as a move to show off its power to US's new incoming President Trump - regional press
- (CN) China Op Ed: China needs to keep financial market liquidity stable and regulate its "money gates" to prevent asset bubbles, but it also needs to ensure a lack of liquidity doesn't cause financial stress - Chinese press
- (CN) Beijing to increase property controls to keep home prices stable next year - Xinhua
***Asian Equity Indices (21:00ET)***
- Nikkei -0.1%, Hang Seng closed, Shanghai Composite -1.1%, ASX200 closed, Kospi +0.1%
***FX ranges/Commodities/Fixed Income (21:00ET)***
- EUR 1.0444-1.0458; JPY 117.05-117.38; AUD 0.71643-0.7188; NZD 0.6875-0.6903
- (CN) PBOC SETS YUAN MID POINT AT 6.9459 V 6.9463 PRIOR
- (CN) PBOC to inject combined CNY70B in 7-day, 14-day and 28-day reverse repo operation vs. CNY145B prior
- (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) sells KRW0.4T in 1-yr monetary stabilization bonds; avg yield 1.61% v 1.53% prior