Asian Mid-session Update: Cloud of weak US non-farm payrolls hangs over markets
***Index Snapshot (as of 02:30 GMT)***
- Nikkei225 -0.2%, S&P/ASX closed, Kospi +0.2%, Shanghai Composite closed, Hang Seng closed, Jun S&P500 -0.7% at 2,045
***Commodities/Fixed Income***
- Jun gold +1.4% at $1,217/oz, May crude oil +1.4% at $49.85/brl, May copper +0.5% at $2.75/lb
- (KR) South Korea Fin Ministry sells 3-year bonds at 1.71%
- BTC/USD: BNK Mellon to experiment with bitcoin, as a potential way for transactions - press
***Market Focal Points/FX***
- Much of Asia remained close, and thin holiday conditions has made it difficult to gauge the regional response to the US employment data disappointment on Friday. However, as US heads into its Q1 earnings season, much of the focus in the coming week will be on whether March report was a cold-weather derived aberration, or the onset of a less impressive labor trend as more companies struggle with dollar strength. S&P500 futures are pointing to a lower open, while the US treasuries have maintained their firm tone from Friday's bounce, with the yield on the 10-year remaining around 1.83%. USD/JPY opened slightly lower below 118.90 but briefly retested 119. EUR/USD opened up by 30pips above 1.10 but reverted below 109.80 later in the session. Metals, energy, and commodities all traded higher as investors pushed out expectations of the first Fed rate hike deeper into late 2015.
- In Europe, the Greece situation remains unsettled even though IMF head Lagarde held a meeting with Greece Finance Minister Varoufakis, maintaining that Athens will make a debt repayment to the IMF on Apr 9th as scheduled. In turn, Varoufakis said discussions with Lagarde were fruitful, reiterating the Greek govt is planning "deep" reform measures.
***Equities***
US equities / ADRs:
- RIO: Mongolia govt approves new phase of the Oyu Tolgoi mine project; To result in $4.2B investment - financial press; 6-month moratorium on merger talks with Glencore to expire on Tuesday; Potential merger hinges on price of copper relative to price of iron ore - financial press
- TSLA: West Virginia Gov signed bill to ban Tesla's direct sale in West Virginia - techblog
Notable movers by sector:
- Consumer Discretionary: Asahi Co 3333.JP -9.0% (FY14/15 results); Jin Co Ltd 3046.JP +6.5% (FY14/15 guidance)
- Technology: Samsung Electronics 005930.KR +3.3% (press speculation on Q1 results); Toshiba Corporation 6502.JP -5.9% (to investigate possible accounting problems); Sharp Corp 6753.JP +6.5% (press speculation on spin-off; considering restructure options)