Asia Trades Mixed, US Equity FUTs Reversed Gain, US Treasury FUTs Decline

Jan 06 21, 06:22 GMT

General Trend

Decliners in Australia include Consumer and Financial firms, Energy index rises
HK Finance and Property indices decline, TECH index rises
Shanghai-listed IT and Consumer firms declined during the morning session; Property and Financial firms rose
Japanese Electric Appliances firms decline, Financials rise amid higher US Treasury yields
Trump placed restrictions on additional Chinese apps
American lawyer was arrested in HK under National Security Law
Japan MOF official commented after USD/JPY briefly declined to 10-month low
US Dec ADP employment data due later today
US Electoral College certification is due on Wed (Jan 6th)
Japan is expected to make decision on state of emergency on Thursday (Jan 7th)

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened -0.0%
(AU) Australia Dec Final PMI Services: 57.0 v 57.4 prelim (confirms 4th month of expansion)

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened -0.2%
(JP) Japan Ministry of Finance Official: Cannot comment on reason for FX movements; Not in a similar situation as before the Flash Crash
(JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Kato: Need to decide on extending subsidies when time comes
7974.JP Announces intention to acquire Canada’s Next Level Games, no terms disclosed
CG Expected to acquire 80% stake in Japan X-ray based testing tools maker Rigaku, in deal seen worth ¥100B and help it go public; would be first deal under its new Japan focused buyout fund – press
(JP) Japan MoF sells ¥2.6T v ¥2.6T indicated in 0.1% 10-year JGBs; avg yield 0.019% v 0.019% prior; bid to cover: 3.40x v 3.42x prior
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Q3 Output Gap: -3.34% v -4.75% prior (remains negative for second consecutive quarter)

Korea

Kospi opened +0.1%
(KR) South Korea Dec Foreign Reserves: $443.1B v $436.4B prior (Record high)
(KR) North Korea leader Kim: 5-year economic plan did not meet its targets, reiterates call for self-reliance in boosting the country’s strength, as the most certain and fast way to overcome difficulties we are facing – Party Congress

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.1%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%
(CN) NYSE considering reverting to original plan to delist China telecom companies – press
(CN) Trump signs executive order than bans transactions with 8 China software applications (including Ant’s Alipay)
CHINA DEC CAIXIN PMI SERVICES: 56.3 V 57.9E (8th consecutive expansion); PMI Composite: 55.8 v 57.5 prior (8th consecutive expansion)
(CN) China to take measures to encourage consumption of home appliances, autos and support to restaurants
(HK) Hong Kong Dec PMI: 43.5 v 50.1 prior (lowest since April)
BABA CNBC’s Faber: Jack Ma is not missing, just laying low
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY130B v Net drain CNY130B prior
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4604 v 6.4760 prior
(HK) Hong Kong police reported “rounding up” dozens of pro-democracy politicians under the National Security Law – press
(CN) S&P Dow Jones: To keep China telecoms ADRs in Indexes

Other

According to Whitty extending gap between coronavirus jab doses creates small risk of ‘escaped mutant’ variant – Sky
(SG) Singapore Dec PMI: 50.5 v 46.7 prior (highest since Jan 2020)

North America

(US) Georgia Sec of State Raffensperger: ~200K votes left to be counted as of 23:58 EST (04:58GMT); hopefully by 12:00 EST well have a better idea of where we are
(US) Fed’s Evans (dove, non-voter): Would welcome above 2% inflation, 3% would not be so bad, hard to imagine out of control inflation – Q&A
T CFO Stephens reiterates FY21 Free Cash Flow Target at $26B; notes new distribution deals with Xfinity and Roku, expect HBO Max activations to continue to increase

Levels as of 12:15ET

Hang Seng -0.4%; Shanghai Composite -0.1%; Kospi +0.1%; Nikkei225 -0.1%; ASX 200 -1.1%
Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.4%; Nasdaq100 -1.3%, Dax -0.2%; FTSE100 +0.5%
EUR 1.2325-1.2277; JPY 102.88-102.59; AUD 0.7780-0.7733; NZD 0.7266-0.7236
Commodity Futures: Gold -0.3% at $1,948/oz; Crude Oil +0.2% at $50.03/brl; Copper +0.1% at $3.65/lb