Asia Trades Mixed With Japan Closed, Volatile Session Seen In SK, USD Extends Gain

Jan 11 21, 06:54 GMT

General Trend

Hang Seng TECH and CEI indices outperform, US officials have not yet made any announcements about Alibaba or Tencent’s shares
Expected NYSE delisting of certain Chinese cos. (China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom) appears to still take effect on Monday (Jan 11th); All of these firms traded up by over 5% on today’s session
SMIC rises over 5% , OTC Markets Group cancelled the pending delisting of the co’s shares (noted US regulator changed position regarding the effective date of Trump’s executive order)
CNOOC rises after it was finally added to the US govt’s list of ‘companies connected to the Chinese military’, some said this news was already expected
Baidu confirmed to create EV company with Geely Holding
Shanghai Property and Consumer Staples firms moved lower during the morning session; gainers included Consumer Discretionary, IT and Financials
Australia’s Energy Index rises after Friday’s gain in oil prices
Nanya Technology (DRAM maker) declined amid Q4 profit drop
Copper drops amid stronger USD, virus cases again rose in Hebei (China’s largest steelmaking province)
RBNZ disclosed data system breach, but does not think it was specific to RBNZ

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened 0.0%
(NZ) New Zealand Nov actual filled jobs +16.1K m/m to 2.22M (highest since Dec 2019)
(NZ) RBNZ: Responding with urgency to a breach of one of its data systems, breach has been contained
(AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to buy A$2.0B in Govt bonds v A$2.0B prior on Dec 23rd

Japan

Nikkei 225 closed for holiday
(JP) Japan has identified new COVID strain similar to UK strain in 4 passengers arriving from Brazil
7751.JP CEO Mitarai: to reorganize operations into 4 groups in April and will focus on new businesses such as monitoring cameras and medical equipment, under new 5 year plan targeting Rev of ¥4.5T – Nikkei

Korea

Kospi opened +0.3%
(KR) South Korea President Moon: South Korea to return to normal life this year, Will achieve fast and strong economic recovery, to actively consider joining CPTPP this year – New years speech
(KR) North Korea leader Kim Jong Un: will continue to develop nuclear warheads; US is our biggest enemy – KCNA
005930.KR Said to be planning to spend $30B on semiconductor capex in FY21, +20-30% from FY20 KRW28.9T – Nikkei
(KR) South Korea Jan-Nov electricity sales -2.4% y/y, industrial electricity sales -4% y/y, attributed to COVID – Yonhap
(KR) South Korea Jan 1-10 Imports Y/Y: -22.9% v +7.9% prior; Exports Y/Y: -15.4% v +26.9% prior
(KR) South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff: Detected signs of North Korea putting together military parade yesterday
005380.KR Follow up: Hyundai said to sign partnership deal with Apple for EVs by March, to begin production by 2024 – Press
(KR) North Korea leader Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong, was not listed as a member nor as an alternate member of the party’s politburo (a demotion and notable as she was viewed at the de factor #2 leader)

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.5%; Shanghai Composite opened 0.0%
(CN) CHINA DEC CPI M/M: 0.7% V 0.4%E; Y/Y: +0.2% V 0.0%E; PPI Y/Y: -0.4% v -0.7%e; Pork prices Y/Y: +6.5% v -12.5% prior (1st increase in 3 months)
(CN) China Ministry of Commerce issues new rules on “unjustified extraterritorial application of foreign legislation”, preventing companies from complying with foreign laws that prohibit transactions with Chinese companies, effective immediately – SCMP
(HK) Hong Kong Financial Sec Chan: To keep countercyclical fiscal policy with new budget – personal blog
0175.HK Confirms Parent Zhejiang Geely to create EV company via JV with Baidu as Strategic Partner and investor
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY5B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY5B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY15B v Net inject CNY5B prior
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4764 v 6.4708 prior
(CN) US govt posts updated list of companies connected to Chinese Military; List does not include Alibaba or Tencent but adds CNOOC (from US Friday)
(CN) China Hebei Province reported 82 new virus cases on Jan 10th, 85 total for the day (highest since July)

Other

(SG) Singapore Deputy PM/Fin Min Heng: H1 will still not be very good but economic activity may start to increase in H2; 2021 GDP likely to be lower than 2019 – Q&A at the Straits Times forum

North America

(US) House articles of impeachment for President Trump now has 210 co-sponsors
TSLA CEO Musk: would like Tesla to sell 20M vehicles/year in 10 years (v ~499.6K in 2020); will have basically almost no possessions with a monetary value, apart from the stock in the companies, for the sake of colonizing Mars – press interview
(US) Follow Up: Speaker Pelosi: House will bring impeachment legislation to floor, Trump is an imminent threat to constitution and democracy, House to vote on measure seeking to remove him under 25th amendment
INTC Intel reportedly in talks to outsource its chip production; Taiwan Semiconductor said ready to switch research site to production for Intel; also in discussions with Samsung – press (Friday afternoon US session)

Europe

Levels as of 12:15ET

Hang Seng +0.8%; Shanghai Composite -0.1%; Kospi -0.2%; Nikkei225 closed; ASX 200 -0.9%
Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.6%; Nasdaq100 -0.4%, Dax -0.8%; FTSE100 -0.4%
EUR 1.2224-1.2167; JPY 104.22-103.89; AUD 0.7764-0.7693; NZD 0.7236-0.7182
Commodity Futures: Gold -0.1% at $1,833/oz; Crude Oil -0.7% at $51.91/brl; Copper -1.9% at $3.62/lb