General Trend:
- Chinese IT, Materials, Property and Telecom Services companies are among the early out performers
- Iron/Steel, Marine/Transportation, Electric Appliances and Machinery firms rise in Japan; Softbank gains
- Automakers and megabanks also trade broadly higher in Japan
- Printing companies rise in Japan as new imperial era is announced
- Japan Display rises over 11%, confirmed talks related to financing agreement
- Nikkei-weighted Fanuc rises over 3%, speculated to change CEO
- Pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo rises over 9%, extends gains after recently announced collaboration agreement with Astrazeneca
- Taiwan’s Hon Hai rises over 9%, FY earnings beat ests
- Australia March NAB business confidence hits lowest level since 2015, RBA due to meet on Tuesday
- Australia March CoreLogic housing price index sees 18th straight m/m decline
- Turkish Lira (TRY) weakens after recent local elections
- China yuan denominated government bonds and policy bank bonds will be phased into the Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index starting in April
- China Vice Premier Liu He is expected to visit the US in early April for trade talks
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened +0.4%
- RIO.AU Update on Tropical Cyclone Veronica; guides FY19 iron ore production lower end of propr 338-350Mt
- (AU) Australia Mar CoreLogic House Price M/M: -0.7% v -0.9 prior (18th consecutive decline)
- WOW.AU Announces A$1.7B buyback, to use proceeds from sale of petrol business: Identified ~30 Big W stores for closure, Big W Q3 SSS +6%
- (AU) Australia sells A$700M v $700M indicated in 5.50% April 2023 bonds, avg yield 1.4064%, bid to cover 3.99x
- (AU) Australia Mar Melbourne Institute Inflation m/m: 0.4% v +0.1% prior; y/y: 2.1% v 1.7% prior
- *(AU) AUSTRALIA MAR NAB CONFIDENCE: 0 V 2 PRIOR (lowest reading since Mar 2015); BUSINESS CONDITIONS: 7 V 4 PRIOR
- (NZ) New Zealand Treasury: Businesses expect flat growth in 2019 as well as higher costs, tighter margins
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened +1.4%
- (JP) JAPAN Q1 TANKAN LARGE MANUFACTURING INDEX: 12 V 13E (lowest since March 2017); OUTLOOK: 8 V 12E; LARGE ALL INDUSTRY CAPEX: 1.2% V 0.7%E
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Official comments on Q1 Tankan Survey: Some firms said they were feeling impact of overseas economic slowdown
- (JP) Japan Mar Final Manufacturing PMI: 49.2 v 48.9 prelim (second consecutive contraction)
- (JP) Japan Bankers Association chairman Makoto Takashima: BOJ needs to carefully consider’ the economic impact of driving the short term rate further below zero as doing so would cause policy side effects to grow further – press
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) announces Bond purchases for month of Apr (unchanged m/m)
- (JP) Japan Cabinet announces the new imperial era for Japan to be called “Reiwa” meaning culture is born and nourished as people’s hearts are drawn beautifully together
- 4911.JP Signs joint business plan with Alibaba; financial terms not disclosed
- 6740.JP Aiming to reach agreement on financing this week; aims for total capital increase of ÂĄ110B with ÂĄ60B-ÂĄ80B through issuance of stock and bonds
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.6%
- 102940.KR Has halted INVOSSA sales in South Korea – US financial press
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA MAR TRADE BALANCE: $5.2B V $5.1BE; Exports Y/Y: -8.2% v -6.9%e (4th straight decline); Imports Y/Y: -6.7% v -5.2%e
- (KR) South Korea Mar Manufacturing PMI: 48.8 v 47.2 prior; new export orders contract for 8th consecutive month, longest decline since 2015
- (KR) South Korea President Moon urges North Korea to respond to US requests for talks
- (KR) South Korea sells KRW840B v 850B indicated in 3-yr bonds, avg yield 1.710% v 1.895%; bid to cover 3.03x
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +1.1%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.7%
- (CN) CHINA MAR OFFICIAL MANUFACTURING PMI: 50.5 V 49.6E (highest since Sept 2018, first reading above 50 since Oct); Non-manufacturing PMI: 54.8 v 54.3 prior
- (CN) CHINA MAR CAIXIN MANUFACTURING PMI: 50.8 V 50.0E (first reading over 50 in 4 months; matches highest reading since July 2018)
- (CN) China State Council said it will continue to suspend tariffs on US cars and auto part imports – financial press
- (HK) On Friday HKMA purchased HK$4.97B as Hong Kong dollar (HKD) traded at weak end of trading band – financial press
- (CN) EU Commission Presidential Candidate Weber: The EU should prevent Chinese firms from going on a “shopping spree” and protect strategic assets
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips for 9th consecutive session: Net: CNY0 v CNY0 prior
- (CN) China PBoC sets yuan reference rate: 6.7193 v 6.7335 prior
- (CN) China to conduct coal mine safety inspections from April to June – Local Press
- (HK) Macau Mar Gaming Rev (MOP) 25.8B v 25.4B prior; Y/Y: -0.4% v -3.0%e
Other Asia
- (SG) Singapore Q1 Private Residential Prices q/q: -0.6% v -0.1% prior – URA
North America
- (MX) US President Trump reiterates threat to close the border with Mexico this week if Mexico does not immediately stop all illegal immigration to the US – tweets
- (US) President Trump tweet: Had the Fed not mistakenly raised interest rates, especially since there is very little inflation, and had they not done the ridiculously timed quantitative tightening, the 3.0% GDP, & Stock Market, would have both been much higher & World Markets would be in a better place!
Europe
- SWEDA.SE Retained the law firm Nordia as external counsel in relation to an initiated criminal investigation regarding inter alia aggravated swindling
- (EU) EU Juncker: We have had a lot of patience with our British friends over Brexit, but patience runs out; Would like UK to reach an accord over Brexit in the next hours/days – speaking to Italian press
- (TR) Turkey mayoral election results: Ruling party held on to most locations, opposition regained hold Istanbul and made significant inroads in other parts of Turkey
- (TR) Turkey President Erdogan: Will appeal election results where needed; Istanbul mayorship may have been lost but many municipalities were won; we stopped attacks against our economy and will strengthen economy against such attacks
- (EU) ECB Knot (Netherlands) said he expects euro zone economy to regain pace in the second half of 2019 – German Press
Levels as of 01:20ET
- Hang Seng +1.8%; Shanghai Composite +2.6%; Kospi +1.4%; Nikkei225 +1.4%; ASX 200 +0.6%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.7%; Nasdaq100 +1.0%, Dax +0.7%; FTSE100 +0.4%
- EUR 1.1220-1.1241; JPY 110.88-111.19 ; AUD 0.7104-0.7128; NZD 0.6813-0.6835
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.1% at $1,297/oz; Crude Oil +0.8% at $60.58/brl; Copper +0.9% at $2.96/lb