General Trend
- Financial and Tech indices are among the gainers in Hong Kong; HSBC rises over 8%, Ping An Insurance raised its stake in the firm
- Evergrande Real Estate rises over 11% in HK after losses seen last week
- Iron/Steel, Real Estate and Retail firms are among the gainers in Japan; Transports lag, ANA Holdings said to consider equity raise; Toshiba declines on delayed IPO for chip unit
- Shanghai Composite declines by 0.2% during morning session, IT shares move lower; Consumer and property firms rose
- Gainers in Australia include Energy and Consumer Discretionary firms; Qantas rises by over 5%, Australia extended COVID-19 relief package for domestic airlines; Consumer Staples, Financial and Resources indices decline
- Piedmont Lithium (listed in the US and Australia) rises over 80% after confirming agreement with Tesla
- Aussie outperforms amid revised RBA call from Westpac; Victoria (Australia) to ease lockdown measures
Headlines/Economic Data
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX200 opened -0.1%
- (AU) Westpac Chief Economist: No longer sees Oct RBA rate cut [at Oct 6th meeting], now expects rate cut in Nov [at Nov 3rd RBA meeting]
- (AU) Victoria (Australia) to ease lockdown measures – press
- (AU) Victoria state (Australia) reports 5 additional coronavirus cases; 3 additional deaths
- (AU) Australia extends COVID-19 relief package for domestic airlines by 4 months until Jan 31 2021
- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$450M v NZ$400M prior in government bonds as part of QE v NZ$M450 sought
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng opened +0.2%, Shanghai Composite +0.2%
- SMIC [981.HK]: US has imposed restrictions on exports to SMIC, the move by the US government said to be not as severe as blacklisting the co. – financial press
- Evergrande Real Estate [3333.HK]: Said indebtedness fell by CNY53.4B vs end-March; Skytop Technology Limited acquired 2021 China Evergrande notes on the open market
- (CN) US Federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump ban on TikTok – US financial press
- (CN) China Aug Industrial Profits Y/Y: +19.1% v +11.5% prior
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY40B in 14-day reverse repos v Injects CNY90B in 14-day reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY60B v Net drain CNY20B prior
- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.8252 v 6.8121 prior
- ICBC [1398.HK]: Completed issuance of CNY60B in 4.20% 10 year bonds
- ICBC [1398.HK]: China Life reports purchase of ICBC shares on Sept 21st; Stake now at over 5.0%
- HSBC [5.HK]: Ping An Insurance raised stake to 8%, purchased an additional 10.8M H-shares
Japan
- Nikkei225 opened +0.8%
- Toshiba [6502.JP]: Kioxia (chip unit): Confirms now is not the best time to proceed with IPO, cites continued market volatility and ongoing concerns about second wave of coronavirus [The IPO was expected to be worth ~$3.2B (would have been the largest IPO in Japan for 2020)]
- ANA Holdings [9202.JP]: Said to consider share sale – Japanese press
Korea
- Kospi opened +1%
- (KR) South Korea confirms 50 additional coronavirus cases (Lowest count since Aug 11th) v 95 prior; 5 additional deaths
North America
- (US) Pres Trump confirms he is nominating Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court (from Sept 26th)
- American Airlines [AAL]: Agrees to $5.5B loan with the US Treasury Dept [upsized from initial agreement of $4.7B], has immediately drawn $550M; could expand the loan to up to $7.5B – 8K [from Sept 25th after market close]
- WPX Energy [WPX]: Reportedly Devon and WPX are in advanced talks for an all stock merger deal – press
- Cleveland-Cliffs [CLF]: In talks with Arcelor to merge assets – financial press
- Zai Lab [ZLAB]: HK-listed shares begin trading at HK$613.50/shr v HK$562/shr IPO price
- XPeng Inc [XPEV]: Planning to build new car factory in Guangzhou, China; Local Govt to provide CNY4.0B for development and plant construction
Europe
- (UK) Ministers in the UK said to be preparing to enforce ‘total’ social lockdown across much of Northern Britain and possibly London; The lockdown measures could require all pubs, bars and restaurants to initially close for 2 weeks. – UK press
- (UK) BoE’s Tenreyro: see very weak global outlook; we have been testing our toolkit and the evidence on negative rates has been encouraging – Sunday Telegraph interview
Levels as of 1:20 ET
- Nikkei 225, +0.7%, ASX 200 +0.1% , Hang Seng +0.8%; Shanghai Composite +0.2% ; Kospi +1.5%
- Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.5%; Nasdaq100 +0.5%, Dax +0.6%; FTSE100 +0.6%
- EUR 1.1640-1.1615 ; JPY 105.69-105.29 ; AUD 0.7064-0.7028 ;NZD 0.6563-0.6542
- Gold -0.2% at $1,863/oz; Crude Oil -0.8% at $39.91/brl; Copper +0.4% at $2.9878/lb
