Nikkei Supported By Continued Gains In Softbank

General Trend:

• Softbank rises over 15% after gaining over 18% on prior session, on Monday the co. announced its buyback and debt reduction plan
• Japanese sectors gaining include Real Estate, Banks, Securities and Electric Appliances
• Kospi rises over 6% after over 5% losses seen on Monday, South Korea disclosed the details related to the previously speculated bond and stock market stabilization funds
• Gainers in Australia include Financials after the over 10% losses seen on Monday
• Sectors moving higher in Shanghai include Consumer Discretionary and Financials
• Services PMIs hit record lows in Japan and Australia in March, manufacturing data also declines

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

• ASX 200 opened +0.9%
• (AU) AUSTRALIA MAR PRELIMINARY PMI MANUFACTURING: 50.1 V 50.2 PRIOR; PMI Services: 39.8 v 49.0 prior (record low, second month of contraction); PMI Composite: 40.7 v 49.0 prior (record low, second month of contraction)
• WOW.AU Updates on impact of coronavirus; closes hotel business until further notice ; remainder of businesses are open; unclear financial impact virus will have on FY20 results; defers separation of Endeavour Group
• (AU) RBA: Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$43.6B v A$43.0B prior
• (AU) Australia ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence Index: 72.2 v 100.0 prior
• (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) adds A$6.88B to banking system through repos v A$3.7B prior
• (AU) Queensland, Australia announces A$4.0B package to support jobs and businesses
• (NZ) New Zealand Fin Min Robertson: Banks in NZ will provide a 6-month mortgage holiday scheme; RBNZ to lower banks core funding ratios; announces NZ $6.25B finance guarantee for businesses
• (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) buys total of A$4.0B in bonds (v A$B max goal) v A$4.0B prior

Japan

• Nikkei 225 opened +1.9%
• (JP) JAPAN MAR PRELIMINARY PMI MANUFACTURING: 44.8 V 47.8 PRIOR (lowest level since April 2009); PMI Services: 32.7 v 46.8 prior (record low); PMI Composite: 35.8 v 47.0 prior (~9 year low)
• (JP) International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member Pound: Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be postponed – press
• 9984.JP Said to be planning to sell $14.0B stake in Alibaba – Japan press
• (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: Estimated unrealized BOJ loss on ETFs ¥2-3T; J-REIT loss ¥100B; BOJ can secure profits in long term as it can earn currency issuance gains – speaking to parliament
• (JP) Japan Govt expected to cut economic assessment in March monthly report to “recovering”, for the first time in almost 7 years – Nikkei
• 7203.JP Confirms suspends operations at 5 plants in Japan, also in Brazil, Argentina and India; considering further options
• (JP) Japan Govt appoints former Norinchukin Exe Masataka Miyazono head of GPIF pension fund, effective April 1st
• (JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: Must monitor impact of postponing Olympics
• (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Will strengthen financial market surveillance; will watch for wrongdoings

Korea

• Kospi opened +2.8%
• (KR) South Korea President Moon confirms KRW100T in stimulus for corporate sector; KRW10.7T stock support fund and KRW20T bond stabilization fund
• (KR) South Korea reports 76 additional coronavirus cases in the last 24-hours v 64 prior; Total 9,037 v 8,961 prior; total deaths 9 v 111 prior
• (KR) South Korea bond stabilization fund expected to be able to buy commercial paper – Local press
• (KR) South Korea FSC Chairman Eun: To start bond buying and stock support fund in early April; to provide KRW5.0T in liquidity to brokerages; policy banks to purchase KRW2.0T in commercial paper and electronic short term notes

China/Hong Kong

• Hang Seng opened +3.7%; Shanghai Composite opened +1.6%
• (CN) China National Health Commission Coronavirus Update for March 23rd: 78 additional cases v 39 prior; Additional deaths: 7 v 9 prior; Hubei: 1 additional cases v 0 prior; additional deaths: 7 v 9 prior
• (CN) On Monday, a total of CNY12.8B in interest rate options were traded on the inter-bank market in China, trading in interest rate options started in China on March 23rd – Chinese Press
• (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips reverse repo operations for the 25th consecutive session, Net CNY0B v CNY0B prior
• (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.0999 v 7.0940 prior
• (CN) Local Govts in China announces virus measures: Beijing, China planning to quarantine all overseas arrivals; Shenzhen will test all coming into the city via ports to be tested – Xinhua
• (CN) Hubei Province (China): Planning to remove transport control measures in Wuhan April 8th; to remove all travel restrictions in and out of Hubei province on March 25th [excluding Wuhan]

Other

• (PH) Philippine congress grants 20 additional powers to President Duterte in order to fight coronavirus, including modifying PHP1.4T budget
• (PH) Philippines Central Bank Chief Diokno: To cut Reserve Ratio Requirement (RRR) by 200bps, effective March 30th

North America

• (US) FED TO BUY UNLIMITED AMOUNTS OF TREASURYS AND MORTGAGE SECURITIES – Statement
• Fed committed to using its full range of tools to support households, businesses, and the U.S. economy overall in this challenging time
• (US) House Democrats to propose $2.5T coronavirus stimulus bill; would include $1,500 direct checks to individuals – press
• (US) Treasury Sec Mnuchin: Very close to stimulus deal, but will not happen tonight
• (US) President Trump: America will be open for business sooner than 3-4 months; Will decide on timing and how we will reopen after 15 day period; won’t let coronavirus turn into long lasting problem; will announce osme dateline in near future; Govt to obtain large quantities of chloroquine
• (US) California gov Newsom: Stay at home order could last 8-12 weeks; 7-day average for jobless claims at 106K v avg 7-day claim avg of 2K
• (US) TTN March 23rd Avg Traffic Intensity Index in Select US cities y/y: 8.8% v 13.6% on March 19th (8th consecutive decline)
• (US) Trump Administration said to consider restricting or shutting down passenger air service across the US – US financial press

Europe

• (UK) PM Johnson: orders citizens to stay at home; closing all non-essential shops; measures to be in place for 3 weeks – national address
• (IT) Italy official: Italy doesn’t need targeted support measures; Eurogroup is debating innovative measures to manage a deep crisis that affects the whole euro area – financial press

Levels as of 1:15ET

• Hang Seng +3.7%; Shanghai Composite +1.2%; Kospi +6.6%; Nikkei225 +5.7%; ASX 200 +4.2%
• Equity Futures: S&P500 +3.7%; Nasdaq100 +3.4%, Dax +2.4%; FTSE100 +3.7%
• EUR 1.0823-1.0723; JPY 111.30-110.09; AUD 0.5946-0.5814; NZD 0.5807-0.5691
• Commodity Futures: Gold +1.7% at $1,593/oz; Crude Oil +4.5% at $24.41/brl; Copper +1.9% at $2.13/lb