General Trend:
- Japanese equities decline as financials move lower after earnings reports from US banks, Marine Transportation sector drops over 2%
- Sectors moving lower in Australia include Energy, Resources and Financial.
- Shanghai Composite declines by less than 0.5% in early trading, financials trade generally weaker
- China PBOC cuts 1-year MLF rate by 20bps to 2.95% (as speculated, in line with cut in 7-day reverse repo rate on March 30th); PBOC is expected to hold next fixing for the loan prime rates (LPRs) on April 20th (Monday)
- Trump: Will authorize each Governor to implement reopening plan; Will speak to all 50 governors by Thursday; Some states may open before May 1; 29 States are in “good shape” in regards to coronavirus
- Australia’s March labor market data due on Thursday (April 16th)
- US companies expected to report earnings during the NY morning include Bank of America, Citi, Goldman, Charles Schwab and UnitedHealth
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened -0.0%
- OZL.AU Reports Q1 gold production 55.6K oz ; Copper production 20.2Kt v 27.4K y/y; Affirms FY20 guidance
- (NZ) New Zealand Mar Food Prices M/M: 0.7% v 0.0% prior
- (AU) Australia Apr Westpac Consumer Confidence Index: 75.6 v 91.9 prior; M/M: -17.7% v -3.8% prior
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$83.5B v A$86.8B prior
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) adds A$1.55B to banking system through repos v A$1.56B prior
- (AU) Australia ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence Index: 78.2 v 71.9 prior
- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) offers to buy total of A$1.5B in bonds v A$1.5B prior; To buy long dated semis from 2028 to 2030
- (AU) Australia sells A$13.0B in new 0.25% Nov 2024 bonds through syndication, avg yield 0.47%, bid to cover 1.98x
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$600M in Govt bonds v NZ$600M sought as part of QE operations
- (AU) Australia Govt said to provide A$50M relief package to media industry – SMH
- (NZ) New Zealand Fin Min Robertson: Looking at more support for businesses and households; Next budget will be for helping kickstart economic recovery
- VAH.AU Largest shareholders will not take part in recapitalization – AFR
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -0.3%
- (JP) Tokyo, Japan said to provide ¥1.5T to SMEs – Nikkei
- 4901.JP Spokesperson: Have significantly expanded production capacity for Avigan for treatment of coronavirus; to increase production to 100K courses by July and 300K by Sept
- (JP) Japan Jr Coalition Partner Komeito’s leader Yamaguchi: Reportedly asks PM Abe to consider ¥100K cash handouts – press
- (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Suga: To slow spread of virus in a month, Japan must do everything possible to lower interactions between people by 70%
- (JP) Japan Health Ministry said to estimate ~850K critical cases of coronavirus and 400K deaths from the virus if there are no actions taken; notes the gov’t has already taken measures to slow the coronavirus – Japanese press
- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: Willing to ease policy further if needed – comments in G7 meeting earlier today (update)
Korea
- Kospi closed for elections
- (KR) Sec of Defense Esper: South Korea can and should pay more for US defense costs – press briefing
- (KR) South Korea reports 27 additional coronavirus cases in last 24 hours v 27 prior
- (KR) South Korea Defense Ministry reports army officer has tested positive for coronavirus after having fully recovered from the disease – Yonhap
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.3%; Shanghai Composite opened 0.0%
- (CN) CHINA PBOC CONDUCTS CNY100B V CNY100B PRIOR IN 1-YEAR MEDIUM TERM LENDING FACILITY (MLF) OPERATIONS AT 2.95% V 3.15% PRIOR
- (HK) Hong Kong Financial Sec Chan: Reiterates Govt will not loosen its property cooling measures – press
- (CN) China National Health Commission Coronavirus Update for April 14th: 46 additional cases (36 imported) v 89 prior; Additional deaths: 1 v 0 prior; Additional Asymptomatic cases 57 v 54 prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.0402 v 7.0406 prior
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips Reserve Repo Operations for the 10th consecutive session; Net CNY0B v CNY0B prior
- (CN) China State Council: Reiterates commitment to further efforts to ensure the full delivery of all support policies introduced this year, will better leverage proactive fiscal policy and scale up financial support for real economy to help businesses, especially small firms – Xinhua
- (CN) China Q1 Air passenger traffic -53.9% y/y; China airlines combined Q1 Net loss CNY33.62B – CAAC
- (CN) China Ministry of Finance (MOF) sells 1-year and 10-year bonds
Other
- IMF UPDATES ITS WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK (WEO): CUTS 2020 GDP GROWTH OUTLOOK FROM +3.3% TO -3.0% (now sees a contraction)
- (PH) Philippines Central Bank (BSP) Gov Diokno: Considering another key rate cut in coming days
- (IN) India Govt to start re-opening measures Apr 20th: To allow additional economic activities in phased manner from April 20th, subject to strict implementation of norms
North America
- (US) Fed’s Barkin (non-voter, hawk): economy has a tough path ahead of it; Fed is willing to be creative, innovative with its support efforts
- (US) Treasury Sec Mnuchin: Most major airlines to participate in PPP, talks continue
- (US) Weekly API Crude Oil Inventories: +13.1M v +11.9M prior
- (US) President Trump: Announces halt to WHO funding while a review is conducted; 15% of US counties have no coronavirus cases – daily coronavirus press conference; To allow states to decided when they will re-open
Levels as of 1:15ET
- Hang Seng -0.2%; Shanghai Composite -0.0%; Kospi closed; Nikkei225 -0.2%; ASX 200 -0.9%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.4%; Nasdaq100 -0.3%, Dax -0.3%; FTSE100 -0.1%
- EUR 1.0991-1.0973; JPY 107.22-106.94; AUD 0.6444-0.6402; NZD 0.6109-0.6062
- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.8% at $1,755/oz; Crude Oil +2.1% at $20.54/brl; Copper -0.1% at $2.33/lb
