Trump Admin Official Said Face-To-Face US/China Talks To Occur ‘Soon’

Jul 04 19, 05:53 GMT

General Trend:

Australia S&P ASX 200 trades at highest level since 2007, banks outperform
Alumina [AWC.AU] declines in Australia, Trump said to have privately raised aluminum issue related to Australia at the June G20 meeting
Japanese retail companies expected to report later today include Seven & I, Kewpie, Aeon Mall and ABC-Mart
Utilities outperform in Hong Kong on comments from China’s NDRC regarding gas connection fees
Hong Kong PMI contracts for 15th straight month, data weighed down by US/China trade dispute and extradition bill related protests
China said to make first ever purchase of US rice (financial press)
Little initial impact seen from Aussie retail sales
USD trades generally weaker after Trump commented on currency manipulation, US data mixed ests (ADP employment and ISM Services)
Korean Won (KRW) rises as current account returned to surplus in May, tracks gain in yuan (CNY
Reminder US markets are closed July 4th for holiday
China Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly press conference on Thursday’s

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.1%
(AU AUSTRALIA MAY RETAIL SALES M/M: 0.1% V 0.2%E
(AU) Australia May Job Vacancies: -1.1% v 1.4% prior
(AU) US President Trump said to have privately raised aluminum issue related to Australia at the June G20 meeting – Australian Press
(AU) Australia government seen as having enough votes in cross-bench to support A$158B tax package, passage may come by as early as today – US financial press

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened +0.5%
5202.JP To raise certain product prices by 5-15%, effective in Oct – US financial press
(JP) Japan PM Abe: Pres Trump has brought up revision of Japan-US security pact ‘many times’
(JP) Japan MoF sells ¥699.3B v ¥700B indicated in 0.4% (prior 0.50%) coupon 30-year JGBs, avg yield: 0.357% v 0.319% prior, bid to cover 4.01x v 3.47x prior

Korea

Kospi opened +0.3%
(KR) South Korea May Current Account: $4.95B v -$664.8M prior; Goods Balance: $5.39B v $5.7B prior (smallest since Jan 2014)
(KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: Economic conditions have changed, Japan’s curbs are obvious economic retaliation; BoK will make appropriate rate decision while considering changes in economic conditions
128940.KR Announces Janssen decided to return global license for developing obesity and diabetes treatment HM12525A to Hanmi as some results of phase 2 clinical trial failed to meet target

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.1%; Shanghai Composite opened flat
(CN) Importer from China purchased about 40 tons of medium-grain rice from California-based Sun Valley Rice, represented the US’ first ever rice sale to China – financial press
(CN) China PBOC sets yuan reference rate: 6.8705 v 6.8640 prior
(CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips for the 9th consecutive; Net drains CNY30B v drain CNY40B prior
(CN) China State Council: China will support the pilot free trade zones in undertaking more experiments with reform and opening up, and refine policy incentives for cross-border e-commerce to facilitate more innovative models in foreign trade

North America

(US) Pres Trump accuses China and Europe of ‘big currency manipulation game’ and says the US should ‘match’ them
S T-Mobile/Sprint deal reportedly nears DOJ approval; official decision could come as soon as next week – press

Europe

(FR) ECB’s Villeroy (France): Lagarde will make a great ECB President; she can count on my full support in the Governing Council
(UK) Labour party said to define its Brexit position before the summer recess – financial press
(UK) BOE’s Cunliffe: Reiterates stance that risk of a no-deal Brexit and no transition have risen – Conference in Lisbon
(DE) German Verdi Union: Reached a labor deal of a for banks in Germany; the deal includes a 4% pay raise; union members must now approve deal

Levels as of 1:20 ET

Nikkei 225, +0.3%, ASX 200 0.6%, Hang Seng flat; Shanghai Composite -0.3%; Kospi +0.2%
Equity Futures: S&P500 flat; Nasdaq100 flat, Dax -0.2%; FTSE100 flat
EUR 1.1296-1.1277 ; JPY 107.83-107.70 ; AUD 0.7049-0.7026 ;NZD 0.6721-0.6697
Gold +0.1% at $1,422/oz; Crude Oil -0.6% at $57.00/brl; Copper -0.4% at $2.675/lb