General Trend:
- HK financials decline ahead of announcement from Trump, Standard Chartered drops over 4%
- Geely drops over 9% in HK on stock placement
- Australian equities lag amid declines in the financial sector
- Austal (Aussie defense co.) rises over 6% on raised guidance, said impact of coronavirus was less than expected in April and May
- Early gainers in Shanghai include consumer discretionary firms, financial and property shares drop
- Sectors moving lower in Japan include Iron/Steel and Transportation
- Nissan Motor declines by over 7% after reporting a FY loss
- Hitachi expected to report results after the close in Japan
- US Equity FUTs pared losses as Hang Seng moved off of opening lows
- BoJ may announce bond buying schedule for June after the market close
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened -0.1%
- (AU) Australia PM Morrison: Not considering sanctions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong
- (AU) Australia Apr Private Sector Credit M/M: 0.0% v 0.6%e; Y/Y: +3.6% v 4.0%e
- (NZ) New Zealand May Consumer Confidence Index: 97.3 v 84.8 prior
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ): Will seek to purchase NZ$1.08B v NZ$1.18B prior in government bonds next week
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$375M v NZ$400M prior in government bonds as part of QE v NZ$375M sought
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened -1.5%, Shanghai Composite -0.5%
- (CN) Pres Trump: will give news conference about China on Friday [the time was not initially disclosed]
- (CN) US Senators Van Hollen (D-MD) and Toomey (R-PA) reported to be bringing a China sanctions bill forward next week
- (US) White House econ adviser Kudlow: China is making a ‘big mistake’ to take over Hong Kong; Reiterates that Phase 1 trade deal with China is still on “for the moment”
- (CN) US said to expel Chinese students with ties to Chinese military schools – financial press
- (CN) China’s Global Times: China may resolutely impose sanctions on US companies helping anti-China US politicians in separating China
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.1316 v 7.1277 prior (weakest CNY fix since Feb 27 2008)
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY300B in 7-day reverse repos v injects CNY240B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net injection CN300B v CNY370B prior
- (CN) China National Health Commission Coronavirus Update for May 28th: 0 additional case (0 imported v 2 prior) v 2 prior; Additional deaths: 0 v 0 prior
- (CN) China Premier Li: Pandemic has impacted global economic growth in a very serious manner; will not hesitate in adopting new measures – closing remarks at NPC (comments from May 28th)
- (HK) Hong Kong Chief Executive Lam: National security law is duty of central authorities, law only targets ‘small minority of illegal acts’ – Letter to citizens
- (CN) US Embassy: Affirming that China regulator will extend flight limits to June 30th
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -0.5%
- (JP) JAPAN APR PRELIMINARY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: -9.1% V -5.7%E; Y/Y: -14.4% V -10.6%E (Largest drop since comp data became available in 2013)
- (JP) JAPAN MAY TOKYO CPI Y/Y: +0.4% V 0.1%E; CPI (EX-FRESH FOOD) Y/Y: +0.2% V -0.2%E
- *(JP) JAPAN APR RETAIL SALES M/M: -9.6% V -6.9%E; Y/Y: -13.7% V -11.2%E (Largest y/y drop since March 1998)
- (JP) JAPAN APR JOBLESS RATE: 2.6% V 2.7%E (highest level since Dec 2017)
- (JP) JAPAN MAY CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX: 24.0 V 21.1E
- (JP) JAPAN APR ANNUALIZED HOUSING STARTS: 797K V 830KE; Y/Y: -12.9% V -12.1%E
- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Jobless rate will likely worsen in May;Must improve economy, not raise taxes to improve tax revenue
- (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Suga: No need for an emergency declaration for cluster coronavirus cases in Kitakyushu; Expert panel will discuss coronavirus outbreak; Does not believe Kitakyushu cluster is coronavirus second wave
- (JP) Tokyo (Japan) reported to further ease coronavirus restrictions in June, may move to ‘step 2’ on June 1st – local press
Korea
- Kospi opened -0.5%
- (KR) South Korea Fin Min:Volatility in Foreign exchange market has risen recently on KRW coupling with China Yuan (CNY); Coupling is not desirable
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA APR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: -6.0% V -3.5%E; Y/Y: -4.5% V -0.5%E
- (KR) South Korea confirms 58 additional coronavirus cases, 0 additional deaths
- (KR) South Korea Health Min warned of critical period to slow latest coronavirus outbreak – FT
North America
- (US) China extends anti-dumping probe into US and Japan Chemical exports
- (US) Fed Total Balance Sheet Size as of May 27th: $7.15T (record) v $7.09T w/w; Net portfolio holdings of Corporate Credit Facilities LLC: $34.9B v $1.8B prior
Levels as of 1:20 ET
- Nikkei 225, -0.1%, ASX 200 -0.7%, Hang Seng -0.5%; Shanghai Composite flat; Kospi +0.2%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 flat, Dax -0.3%; FTSE100 -0.7%
- EUR 1.1089-1.1069 ; JPY 107.71-107.37; AUD 0.6644-0.6612 ;NZD 0.6213-0.6188
- Gold +0.3% at $1,718/oz; Crude Oil -1.5% at $33.20/brl; Copper -0.1% at $2.405/lb
