Asia Market Update: Equity markets opened higher after the record closes seen on Wall St; Chinese and HK equities lag in early trading; Jan 15th (Wed) signing date for US/China phase 1 deal in focus; US payrolls report due later today
General Trend:
- Trump said China trade deal may be signed shortly after Jan 15th (financial press citing interview)
- Energy companies and property developers decline in China and Hong Kong in early trading
- HK property developer Sunac China drops over 4% on plan to conduct ~HK$8.0B stock placement
- Aussie Nov retail sales supported by Black Friday spending
- Indonesia Rupiah (IDR) rises on comments from central bank
- Large Taiwanese DRAM maker Nanya Technology expected to report Q4 results later today
- Taiwan Semi expected to report Dec sales later today
***Headlines/Economic Data***
Australia/New Zealand
-ASX 200 opened +0.2%
- (AU) AUSTRALIA NOV RETAIL SALES M/M: +0.9% V +0.4%E (largest rise in 2 years)
-(AU) Australia Dec AIG Performance of Services Index: 48.7 v 53.7 prior
- (AU) Australia insurers have raised bush fire lose estimates to A$939M - US Financial Press
China/Hong Kong
-Shanghai Composite opened +0.2%, Hang Seng +0.4%
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 6.9351 v 6.9497 prior
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips reverse repos for the 14th consecutive session; Net drain CNY0B v drain CNY0B prior
- (CN) Phase 2 trade deal after Nov 2020 is too far away, US President Trump should not use the signature of a phase 2 deal with China as ‘bargaining chip’ for his presidential election in Nov 2020 – Global Times
Japan
-Nikkei 225 opened +0.3%
- (JP) Nikkei 225 options for Jan said to settle at ~23,857
- (JP) Japan Nov Household Spending Y/Y: -2.0% v -1.8%e
- (JP) Japan Dec Official Reserve Assets: $1.32T v $1.32T prior
- (JP) Japan Nov Preliminary Leading Index CI: 90.9 v 90.9e; Coincident Index: 95.1 v 95.2e
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) announcement related to daily bond buying operation: Unchanged
- (JP) Japan PM Abe trip to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Oman will proceed as planned - Japan Press
Korea
-Kospi opened +0.2%
- (KR) South Korea Finance Min Hong: Iran situation is not impacting the domestic economy
Other Asia
- (ID) Indonesia Central Bank: Will allow IDR (Rupiah) to strengthen further
- (SG) Singapore Nov Retail Sales M/M: 0.2% v +1.0%e; Y/Y: -4.0% v -4.1%e
North America
-Boeing [BA]: Issues statement on documents provided to Congress related to the internal communications about the development of the 737 Max
-Grubhub Seamless [GRUB]: Comments on press speculation: 'unequivocally' isn't running sales process
- Amazon [AMZN]: Said to be in talks with TV Apps about selling ad inventory on platforms such as Apple TV and the XBOX - US financial press
Europe
- (UK) UK Foreign Sec Raab: Advises against all travel to Iran, cites 'body of information' that Ukraine UIA Flight 752 was shot down by Iran
- (IE) Ireland Dec Consumer Confidence: 81.4 v 77.1 prior
***Levels as of 00:20 ET***
- Nikkei 225, +0.3%, ASX 200 +0.8%, Hang Seng flat; Shanghai Composite -0.4%; Kospi +0.6%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.3%, Dax +0.1%; FTSE100 +0.1%
- EUR 1.1112-1.1102 ; JPY 109.58-109.45 ; AUD 0.6878-0.6850 ;NZD 0.6621-0.6601
- Gold -0.4% at $1,547/oz; Crude Oil -0.3% at $59.36/brl; Copper +0.1% at $2.803/lb