General Trend:
- Gainers in Australia include Consumer Discretionary firms, Financials rise after earnings and dividend announcement from ANZ
- Insurance, Real Estate and Iron/Steel firms rise in Japan; Electric Appliances and Marine Transportation indices lag
- Shanghai Composite declined by less than 0.5% during morning session; IT and Consumer Discretionary firms were among the decliners
- Hang Seng due to resume trading at 530 GMT, morning trading was canceled due to storm signal
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 opened flat
- Rio Tinto [RIO.AU]: Notes Kennecott copper facility in US is experiencing delays; Cuts 2020 Refined Copper production guidance to 135-175kt (vs 165-205kt prior) [Rio Tinto Kennecott comprises approximately 11 percent of U.S. annual copper production (co’s website)]
- (AU) Australia July Westpac Leading Index M/M: 0.1% v 0.5% prior
- (AU) Australia sells A$1.7B v A$1.7B indicated in Dec 2030 bonds, avg yield 0.9116%, bid to cover 4.7 x
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Assist Gov Hawkesby to give speech on using balance sheet on Aug 20th (Thursday), the text of the speech will be available on the RBNZ’s website at 9:45 am local time (9:45 PM GMT)
- (NZ) New Zealand Q2 PPI Input Q/Q: -1.0% v -0.3% prior; PPI Output Q/Q: -0.3% v +0.1% prior
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$440M v NZ$398M prior in government bonds as part of QE v NZ$440M sought (1st full purchase in 3 sessions)
- (NZ) BNZ (private bank) now expects the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) to cut the OCR into negative territory in April 2021, expects OCR to be cut to -0.5% by Aug 2021 – US financial press
- (NZ) New Zealand Treasury names panel for an Apr 2027 bond syndication
- (NZ) New Zealand PM Ardern: No need to move to Level 4 lockdown
China/Hong Kong
- Hong Kong Exchange canceled the morning trading session [due to typhoon signal]; Shanghai Composite opened -0.2%
- HK trading is due to resume at 530 GMT
- Hong Kong Exchanges [388.HK]: Reports H1 (HK$) Net 5.23B v 5.2B y/y, EBITDA 6.71B v 6.63B y/y; Rev 8.78B v 8.58B y/y
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.9168 v 6.9325 v prior (Strongest yuan fix since Jan 23rd)
- (CN) China Finance Ministry (MOF) Sells 1-year 10-year bonds: 1-year bonds at 2.3741% v 2.25%e
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY150B in 7-day reverse repos v Injects CNY100B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net injection CNY10B v Net Injection CNY50B prior
- (US) White House Chief of Staff Meadows: Reiterates no new trade talks between US and China are scheduled; USTR Lighthizer continues talks with China counterparts on Phase 1 commitments
- (CN) China MOFCOM Official Xian Guoyi: Services trade still faces severe condition in H2 due to shrinking demand
Japan
- Nikkei225 opened -0.2%
- Softbank [9984.JP]: Softbank Group Japan Corp (SBGJ, wholly-owned subsidiary) decided to conduct incorporation-type company split; SBGJ holds shares in Alibaba and SoftBank Corp; Transaction will permit the carving out of the Alibaba shares held by SBGJ
- Takeda [4502.JP]: Reported to sell consumer healthcare unit to Blackstone for ¥250B – Japanese press
- (JP) Japan July Trade Balance: +¥11.6B v -¥86.5Be; Adjusted Trade Balance: -¥34.8B v -¥45.3Be; Exports to China +8.2% y/y
- (JP) Japan Jun Core Machine Orders M/M: -7.6% v +2.0%e; Y/Y: -22.5% v -17.5%e; Japan Cuts Machine orders assessment; Notes machine orders are ‘declining’ [previously said machine orders are ‘weakening’]
Korea
- Kospi opened +1%
- (KR) South Korea confirms 297 additional coronavirus cases (Largest daily total since March)
- (KR) South Korea reported to expect further increases in reported coronavirus cases this week – US Press
- (KR) South Korea reported to securing additional hospital capacity in Seoul – Korea Press
- (KR) South Korea Finance Min: Housing market showing stability vs July
- (KR) South Korea Q2 Household Credit (KRW): 1,637.3T v 1,611.3T prior
Other Asia
- (TW) Taiwan reported to launch probe into China cyber attacks on Taiwan Govt agencies
North America
- (US) Senior US Official reported to say there is ‘real desire’ among some US Democrats and Republicans to reach a smaller stimulus deal of $500B – Press
- Gilead [GILD]: Receives FDA Complete Response Letter for Filgotinib for the treatment of moderately to severely active Rheumatoid Arthritis; FDA
Levels as of 1:20 ET
- Nikkei 225, +0.3%, ASX 200 +0.9% ; Shanghai Composite flat ; Kospi +0.8%
- Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.1%, Dax +0.2%; FTSE100 +0.4%
- EUR 1.1952-1.1927 ; JPY 105.60-105.10 ; AUD 0.7260-0.7231 ;NZD 0.6616-0.6599
- Gold -0.5% at $2,002/oz; Crude Oil -0.6% at $42.66/brl; Copper +0.7% at $2.9947/lb
