General Trend:
- Securities brokers decline in Japan
- Nissan drops on speculated US SEC probe related to executive compensation
- Shanghai composite supported by the banking, telecom and tech sectors
- Shanghai property index underperforms in early trade
- Iron ore futures rise over 5% in China, Vale dam accident cited
- Commodity currencies extend gains from Friday amid Fed speculation, China/US talks in focus
- Yuan (CNY) fixed stronger ahead of trade talks
- China Vice Premier Liu He expected to visit the US this week for trade talks (Jan 30-31st)
- Trump suggested that temporary agreement to reopen US government might not last
- Various HK property companies (including Jingrui Holdings) seek to issue US dollar denominated bonds for refinancing purposes
- US companies due to report earnings on Monday are AK Steel, Caterpillar, Celenese and Whirlpool (includes afterhours)
Headlines/Economic Data
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -0.1%
- (JP) Japan labor data scandal has spread, investigation showed 40% of key economic stats may contain errors – Nikkei
- (JP) Qatar Amir starts 3 day visit to Japan, expected to call on the Japanese government and businesses to boost economic cooperation – press
- (JP) JAPAN DEC PPI SERVICES Y/Y: 1.1% V 1.2%E
- (JP) Japanese real estate transactions down 34% in H2 2018; Chinese slowdown cited as cause – Japan press
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes for Dec 19-20th (2 meetings ago): Most – appropriate to continue easing persistently
- 8591.JP Reports 9M Net ¥236.2B v ¥256.4B y/y, Op ¥258.1B v ¥189B y/y; Rev ¥1.80T v ¥2.19T y/y
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.3%
- (KR) South Korea financial regulator: Will increase monitoring of banks and other financial institutions to further slow the growth of household debt
- (KR) South Korea 2018 private consumption +2.8% (7-yr high) v 2.6% y/y – Yonhap
- (KR) South Korea Defense Min Jeong Kyeong-doo orders Navy to sternly deal with the repeated low altitude flybys by Japan warplanes; calling them a serious provocation by an ally – Yonhap
- (KR) North Korea urges South Korea to end military drills, they can hurt the current mood of peace and dialogue on the Korea peninsula – Yonhap
- 005380.KR Affiliate Hyundai Autoever given prelim approvals for IPO in South Korea
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.5%, Shanghai Composite +0.5%
- (CN) China Dec Industrial Profits y/y: -1.9% v -1.8% prior (1st consecutive decline since Jan 2015); YTD y/y: +10.3% v 11.8% prior
- 486.HK US Treasury removes Rusal from sanction list following deal for Deripaska to reduce stake
- (CN) China Govt replaces CSRC chairman Liu Shiyu with Yi Huima – Xinhua
- (HK) According to HKET existing home sales in Hong Kong over the weekend were the highest in 41 weeks
- (CN) Three mainland Chinese companies have missed a combined CNY2.5B in debt repayments over the past 2-months despite apparently high cash holding – SCMP
- (CN) China Premier Li: China’s economy has enough resilience, potential and ample room for growth, especially with a huge domestic market and rich human resources of nearly 1.4B people, therefore, we are fully confident and capable of keeping economic growth rate within an appropriate range in spite of multiple risks and challenges in 2019 – Xinhua
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips reverse repo operations for the 6th consecutive session; Net: CNY0B drain v CNY10B drained prior
- (CN) China PBoC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 6.7472 v 6.7941 prior (strongest setting since July 19, 2018)
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 closed for holiday
- SML.NZ Cuts 2018/2019 milk price forecast to $6.25 kgMS (prior $6.75) (in line with press speculation)
North America
- (CA) Canada ambassador to China John McCallum fired over comments that were seen supporting detained Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou – Nikkei
- FB Recently unsealed documents from 2016 lawsuit show FB’s internal response to children unknowingly charging parents’ credit card and employees referring to the kids as “whales” in terms of money making
- (US) President Trump signed deal funding the Govt to Feb 15th, so talks can continue on the border wall
- VALE Suspends dividend, share buyback and executive bonuses due to most recent dam failure – filing
- (VE) US Sec State Pompeo: now is the time to pick a side on Venezuela – UN Security Council session
Europe
- TSCO.UK Union calling for a meeting with co, amid fears Tesco is planning to layoff 15,000 workers and affect over 730 stores – FT
- SIE.DE EC Commissioner Vestager confirms that Siemens and Alstom have offered new concessions – press
- (UK) Boris Johnson (Tory member): PM May planning to seek legally binding changes to Ireland backstop, will either insert time limit or an escape clause- Telegraph
- (UK) PM May told ministers she is not ready to rule out no deal Brexit, as it would remove bargaining chip with EU – UK press
- (EU) ECB’s Knot (Netherlands): EU economy doesn’t show any signs of falling into a recession; talk of crisis or an European recession is somewhat premature – Dutch press
Levels as of 12:50ET
- Hang Seng +0.2%; Shanghai Composite +0.0%; Kospi +0.1%; Nikkei225 -0.6%; ASX 200 +0.7%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.3%; Nasdaq100 -0.4%, Dax -0.2%; FTSE100 -0.2%
- EUR 1.1403-1.1427; JPY 109.27-109.58; AUD 0.7175-0.7205; NZD 0.6830-0.6873
- Commodities Futures: Gold +0.3% at $1,302/oz; Crude Oil -1.0% at $53.12/brl; Copper -0.7% at $2.71/lb
