China’s Official Growth Forecasts Expected To Be Released On Tuesday

Mar 04 19, 08:07 GMT

General Trend:

US said to be considering removing most if not all of the sanctions imposed on Chinese goods since 2018, trade deal with China could be reached at summit around March 27th (US financial press article)
China reiterates substantial progress made in US trade talks
Trump/Kim summit ends early, Trump says Kim not ready to accept great deal
Gains in China supported by the IT, Telecom Services and Property sectors
Machinery, Electric Appliance and Securities firms rise in Japan
Fast Retailing’s upcoming Feb sales figures in focus
Rakuten rises over 5% after LYFT filed for IPO, Softbank rises over 3%
Nikkei Futures rise amid contract roll
Consumer Staples companies outperform in Australia
Australia Q4 inventories unexpectedly decline, Q4 GDP data due on March 6th (Wed)
On Tuesday (March 5th), China Premier Li is expected to issue the main economic targets
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) due to hold policy decision on Tuesday (March 5th)

Headlines/Economic Data

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened +1.0%
(JP) Japan Feb Monetary Base y/y: 4.6% v 4.7% prior; Monetary Base End of Period: ¥497.3T v ¥500.2T prior
3382.JP Seven-Eleven plans to test shorter hours in Japan amid labor shortages – Japanese Press
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: Reiterates will discuss exit strategy at appropriate time, will debate and communicate exit strategy at the right time; Currently difficult to reach 2% within outlook period (FY20)
(JP) Japan Economy Min Motegi: Do not have timing with US on trade talks, talks will be mostly focused on goods
(JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Suga: Not true that Japan aided Nissan/Renault merger resistance
(JP) Japan PM Abe: Trust BOJ Govt Kuroda ability to run monetary policy, leave concrete steps up to him to adopt

Korea

Kospi opens +0.7%
(KR) South Korea Feb Manufacturing PMI: 47.2 v 48.3 prior (lowest since June 2015); New export orders contract for the 7th consecutive month; New orders 44.9 v 47.0 prior (largest decline since June 2015)
(KR) DoD reportedly preparing to announce that annual large joint military exercises with South Korea will no longer be held – NBC News
(US) Pres Trump: North Korea has a bright economic future if it gives up nukes; will get other countries to provide aid if a deal works out – CPAC speech
(KR) National Sec Adviser Bolton: Sanctions will continue on North Korea following Trump/Kim summit; Kim wasn’t ready to accept Trump’s “big deal” – press
(KR) South Korea Vice Fin Min: Will act to stabilize markets if needed, though Govt sees limited impact on markets from result of Hanoi summit
(KR) US and South Korea will launch the new Dong Maeng combined exercise this week to replace their springtime Key Resolve drills – Yonhap
(KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) Breakdown of US/North Korea talks not expected to have big impact; to closely monitor markets and foreign fund flows

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opens +0.2%; Shanghai Composite opens +0.7%
(US) Pres Trump asks China to immediately remove all tariffs on US agricultural products ” based on the fact that we are moving along nicely with Trade discussion” and that the US didn’t raise tariffs to 25%
Trump tweets: “I have asked China to immediately remove all Tariffs on our agricultural products (including beef, pork, etc.) based on the fact that we are moving along nicely with Trade discussions…….and I did not increase their second traunch of Tariffs to 25% on March 1st. This is very important for our great farmers – and me!”
(CN) China said to have offered US to lower tariffs on US farm goods, autos and other goods; US considering removing most if not all of the sanctions imposed against Chinese products since last year; close to a final agreement on trade – US press
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips OMO v skipped prior (3rd consecutive skip); Net: CNY40B drain v CNY40B prior
(CN) China PBoC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 6.7049 v 6.6901 prior

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.2%
(AU) AUSTRALIA JAN BUILDING APPROVALS M/M: 2.5% V 1.5%E; Y/Y: -28.6% V -28.9%E
(AU) AUSTRALIA Q4 COMPANY OPERATING PROFIT Q/Q: 0.8% V 3.0%E; INVENTORIES SA Q/Q: -0.2% V 0.3%E
OSH.AU Affirms FY19 production 28.0-31.5MMBOE; in advanced talks on Armstrong option and divestment
(AU) Australia Feb Melbourne Institute Inflation m/m: +0.1% v -0.1% prior; y/y: 1.7% v 1.5% prior
(AU) Australia and Indonesia to sign Free Trade Agreement today; expected to boost AU cattle industry; ID textiles, auto parts and timber exports – Local Press

Other Asia

North America

(US) Over the weekend, US President Trump said the Fed’s tight monetary policy was contributing to a strong dollar, hurting the US’ competitiveness – financial press
TSLA Will unveil Model Y, the all-electric crossover based on Model 3, March 14th in LA
TNXP FDA rescinds Breakthrough Therapy designation (BTD) granted for Tonmya for PTSD in December 2016 because interim analysis data

Europe

(IE) Ireland Feb Consumer Confidence Index: 86.5 v 98.8 prior (6-yr low)
(UK) UK Attorney General (AG) Cox has ended attempts to secure a hard time-limit or unilateral exit mechanism for the Ireland backstop – UK Telegraph
(UK) Labour party Finance spokesperson John McDonnell: Labour Party does not want a second Brexit referendum, have been forced into supporting one by PM May who is running down the clock on negotiations – press

Levels as of 1:00ET (06:00GMT)

Hang Seng +0.8%; Shanghai Composite +1.7%; Kospi -0.2%; Nikkei225 +1.0%; ASX 200 +0.4%
Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.3%; Nasdaq100 +0.5%, Dax +0.2%; FTSE100 -0.0%
EUR 1.1359-1.1382; JPY 111.76-112.02; AUD 0.7080-0.7110; NZD 0.6802-0.6828
Commodity Futures: Gold -0.3% at $1,294/oz; Crude Oil +0.3% at $55.98/brl; Copper +0.6% at $2.94/lb