Stocks Trade Weaker As US Equity FUTs Declined, USD Rises Into Month-End

Jan 29 21, 06:06 GMT

General Trend

Japan companies expected to report earnings include Komatsu, KDDI, NEC Corp, Yamato Holdings, Ana Holdings and Murata Manufacturing.
BoJ might release its bond buying plan for Feb later today
Companies expected to report during the NY morning include Caterpillar, Charter Communications, Colgate-Palmolive, Chevron, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Eli Lilly, LyondellBasell, Phillips 66, Weyerhaeuser

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened +0.5%
(AU) Australia Q4 PPI Q/Q: +0.5% v 0.4% prior; Y/Y: -0.1% v -0.4% prior
(AU) Australia Dec Private Sector Credit M/M: 0.3% v 0.1% prior; Y/Y: 1.8% v 1.7%e
(AU) Australia sells A$2.5B v A$2.5B indicated in Nov 2024 notes, avg yield 0.1793%, bid to cover 4.6x
(NZ) New Zealand Q4 Job Ads Q/Q: +6.4% v -9.9% prior
(NZ) New Zealand Jan Consumer Confidence: 113.8 v 112.0 prior
(NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ): Lends NZ$100M under Funding for Lending program (FLP), total lending under the program has risen to NZ$1.14B

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +1%, Shanghai Composite +0.5%
(CN) China Overnight Repo Rate trades at 3.28% rate, highest since 2015 after China injected CNY100B in liquidity with 7-day reverse repos
(CN) China PBOC may increase cash injections by using OMOs before Lunar New Year holiday [in mid-Feb], suggests liquidity needs before the holiday are lower vs 2020 – Chinese press [in line]
(CN) China govt said to again avoid setting a GDP growth target for 2021 citing it would encourage an unhealthy debt buildup – financial press
(CN) China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT): To develop 15 electronic component producers with Rev in excess of CNY10B by 2023
(CN) China Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM): Expects Domestic consumption to recover in 2021; Working to increase auto sales and regular consumption
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY100B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY100B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net inject CNY98B v Net drain CNY150B prior
(CN) China PBOC to conduct CNY5.0B in 3-month Central Bank Bill Swap (CBS) operation on today’s session v CNY5.0B prior
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4709 v 6.4845 prior

Japan

Nikkei225 opened +0.4%
(JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Summary of Opinions from Jan Policy Meeting: Key issue of policy review is to enhance sustainability of daily ops, while making tools agile to respond to changes in economy in timely fashion
(JP) JAPAN DEC PRELIMINARY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: -1.6% V -1.5%E; Y/Y: -3.2% V -3.1%E
(JP) JAPAN JAN TOKYO CPI Y/Y: -0.5% V -0.9%E; CPI (EX-FRESH FOOD) Y/Y: -0.4% V -0.6%E
(JP) JAPAN DEC JOBLESS RATE: 2.9% V 3.0%E
(JP) JAPAN JAN CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX: 29.6 V 29.0E
(JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Large Fiscal Spending if left unattended would affect markets in FX and interest rates; Looking at market impact of US Fiscal situation
(JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: Coronavirus infection clusters at restaurants are declining; High levels of infections still being reported

Korea

Kospi opened +0.3%
Hynix [000660.KR]: Reports Q4 (KRW) Net 1.77T v -125.6B y/y, Op 966B v 930Be, Rev 7.97T v 7.6Te
(KR) South Korea Dec Industrial Production M/M: 3.7% v 0.8%e; Y/Y: 3.4% v -0.6%e
(KR) South Korea to announce any changes to social distancing levels on Sunday, Jan 31st – Press

North America

(US) White House Press Sec Psaki: there is no intention to split the coronavirus relief package in order to ease its passage
(US) Treasury Sec Yellen to give President Biden and VP Harris a briefing at 11:00EST on Jan 29th (Friday)
(US) Senate Banking Committee Chairman Brown (D-OH) plans to hold hearing on the current state of the stock market
Citron Research: Says to make ‘major’ announcement on Fri at 9 am ET (Jan 29th)

Europe

Levels as of 00:20 ET

Nikkei 225, -1.7%, ASX 200 -0.6% , Hang Seng -0.5%; Shanghai Composite -0.4% ; Kospi -2.8%
Equity S&P500 Futures: -1.3%; Nasdaq100 -1.5%, Dax -1%; FTSE100 -1.2%
EUR 1.2127-1.2095 ; JPY 104.57-104.22 ; AUD 0.7689-0.7635 ;NZD 0.7187-0.7152
Gold +0.2% at $1,844/oz; Crude Oil -0.2% at $52.22/brl; Copper -0.6% at $3.5535/lb