Asian Mid-session Update: China to maintain prudent monetary and proactive fiscal policies; Greece govt passes confidence motion, braces for EMU Fin Min meeting
***Economic Data***
- (AU) AUSTRALIA FEB WESTPAC CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX: 100.7 V 93.2 PRIOR; M/M: 8.0% (3-year high) V 2.4% PRIOR
- (AU) AUSTRALIA DEC HOME LOANS M/M: 2.7% V 2.0%E (16-month high)
- (NZ) New Zealand REINZ Jan House Price Index: 4,037.3 v 4,076.6 prior; House Sales Y/Y: 2.6% v 24.2% prior
- (NZ) NEW ZEALAND JAN TOTAL CARD SPENDING M/M: +0.1% V -0.3% PRIOR; RETAIL SPENDING M/M: -0.4% (13-month low) V +0.2%E
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA JAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE (SEASONALLY ADJ): 3.4% V 3.5%E
***Index Snapshot (as of 03:30 GMT)***
- Nikkei225 closed, S&P/ASX -0.6%, Kospi +0.6%, Shanghai Composite +0.2%, Hang Seng -0.8%, Mar S&P500 +0.1% at 2,060
***Commodities/Fixed Income***
- Apr gold +0.4% at $1,236, Mar crude oil +0.1% at $50.37/brl
- (US) API PETROLEUM INVENTORIES: CRUDE: +1.6M (smallest build in 5 weeks) v +4.0Me, GASOLINE: +1.6M v +0.5e, DISTILLATE: +0.5M v -1.5Me
- (AU) Australia MoF (AOFM) sells A$800M in 2024 Bonds; avg yield: 2.5556%; bid-to-cover: 3.27x
***Market Focal Points/FX***
- Down over 10% from multi-year highs, Shanghai Composite is limping into next week's Lunar New Year holiday break. Following disappointing trade and CPI figures released over the past two days, PBoC monetary policy report for Q4 released overnight merely reiterated intention to pursue prudent monetary policy approach and fine-tune policy in a timely manner, as it pledged to monitor for impact of November interest rate cuts and overcapacity pressuring inflation. China Vice Fin Min Zhu largely repeated that sentiment, while an official with PBoC speculated 2015 GDP to be in a 6.9-7.1% range - well below 7.4% for 2014. A high profile feature in China Securities Journal is calling for more aggressive policy easing to fight disinflationary pressure, also warning the Q1 GDP deflator is likely to fall into negative territory. On tap are China New Loans and Money supply figures for January - recall Industrial Production/Retail Sales/Fixed investment data were not gathered last month.
- Trading in Australia was marred by another terrorist plot reported to be foiled shortly before potentially coming to fruition. Sydney police detailed two men in possession of a machete, a hunting knife, a threatening video and an ISIS flag. Recall about two months ago, 2 victims fell to an Iranian cleric in a Sydney cafe standoff. Separately, Australia economic data were fairly decent. Westpac consumer confidence index rose by the biggest margin in 3 years, and resident economist said this marked the first big improvement since the May budget shock of last year. Treasurer Hockey warned however that return to surplus may be at risk unless govt spending is sharply lower. Home loans figures were also praiseworthy, rising at the highest rate in over a year. AUD/USD traded up about 30pips from the lows before the $0.78 handle stopped its ascend.
- As expected, Greek anti-austerity govt won its confidence vote with 162 - 137 margin, paving the way toward contentious discussions among euro zone fin mins on Wednesday. PM Tsipras reiterated his govt tactics are representative of the majority of Greek citizens, and that a split in the euro would not be beneficial for anyone.
***Equities***
US markets:
- CHS: Said to be a in late stage buyout talks with private equity firms in deal that could value Chico's in excess of $3B - financial press; +10.7% afterhours
- AKAM: Reports Q4 $0.70 v $0.64e, R$536M v $526Me; Guides Q1 R$517-534M v $527Me - conf call; +4.9% afterhours
- WU: Reports Q4 $0.42 v $0.34e, R$1.41B v $1.44Be; Increases dividend 24% to $0.155 from $0.125, Adds $1.2B (12.5% market cap) to buyback plan; +4.4% afterhours
- CRL: Reports Q4 $0.81 v $0.71e, R$329.5M v $320Me; +2.9% afterhours
- TMH: Reports Q4 $0.56 (adj) v $0.54e, R$790.7M v $744Me; +1.3% afterhours
- CERN: Reports Q4 $0.47 (adj) v $0.47e, R$926.0M v $907Me; -0.9% afterhours
- VSAT: Reports Q3 $0.49 v $0.31e, R$339.6M v $360Me; -1.4% afterhours
- LOCK: Reports Q4 $0.28 v $0.27e, R$129.7M v $129Me; -2.3% afterhours
- PIR: Guides FY15 lower to $0.80-0.83 v $1.00e, SSS +5% ($0.95-1.05, SSS in mid to high single digits prior); -32.2% afterhours
- VIA: Jon Stewart to leave Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" later this year
- TSLA: Postpones its earnings call to 19:30ET on Wednesday, Feb 11th; Results to be released at 17:00ET
Notable movers by sector:
- Consumer Discretionary: Guangdong Advertising 002400.CN +3.4% (prelim FY14 results); Domino's Pizza Enterprises DMP.AU +20.1% (H1 results); Stockland SGP.AU +2.2% (H1 results); Skilled Group SKE.AU % (H1 results)
- Financials: Poly Property Group 119.HK -2.0% (Jan sales result); Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AU -0.8% (H1 results); Suncorp-Metway SUN.AU -3.1% (H1 results)
- Materials: OZ Minerals OZL.AU -6.9% (FY14 results)
- Energy: AGL Energy AGK.AU +3.4% (H1 results)
- Industrials: China Railway Group 601390.CN +3.8% (announces private placement for infrastructure projects); Leighton Holdings LEI.AU +2.7% (FY14 results); Boral Ltd BLD.AU -1.0% (H1 results)
- Technology: Kingsoft 3888.HK +1.0% (enters partnership with China Telecom)
- Healthcare: CSL Limited CSL.AU -8.1% (H1 results)
- Telecom: TCL Corp 000100.CN +8.6% (prelim FY14 results)