Asian 10-Yr Gov’t Bond Yields Trade Generally Higher

General Trend

• Equities have remained higher after the positive openings. Financials have traded generally higher amid the rise in long-term gov’t bonds yields, Energy shares track recent rise in oil prices; Most indices are currently closer to the best levels.
• Hang Seng has risen over 2% after declining 3% during the prior session [Property and TECH indices outperform]; Shanghai Property index rose over 6% [some pointed to new rules related to land transfers], Consumer Staples continued to lag.
• Chipmakers rise in South Korea; Australian Resources, Energy and Financial names move higher; Japanese automakers track the strength in US autos
• Earnings reactions: [Australia]: Qantas, Sandfire Resources, Medusa Mining, Flight Centre, Ramsay Health Care rise; A2 Milk, Stockland decline; [Hong Kong]: Standard Chartered declined; [US] NVIDIA declined
• RBA again stepped up bond purchases amid rise in yields
• China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly news conferences on Thursday
• Companies expected to report during the NY morning include American Tower, Best Buy, Cars.com, Cleveland-Cliffs , CIBC, Donaldson Company, Dominos Pizza, Gildan Activewear, Granite Construction , Keurig DR Pepper, Mercadolibre, Melco Resorts, Moderna, Norwegian Cruise, Nielsen, Netease.com, PG&E, PROG Holdings, Quanta Services, Papa Johns, Sanderson Farms, J. M. Smucker, SolarWinds, TD Bank, LendingTree, VIPShop, Wayfair

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

• ASX 200 opened +0.2%
• (NZ) New Zealand Fin Min Robertson: RBNZ will take account of housing in its policy decisions; changes will be made to RBNZ committee remit
• (AU) AUSTRALIA Q4 PRIVATE CAPITAL EXPENDITURE Q/Q: 3.0% V 1.0%E
• (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Offers to buy A$5.0B in Govt bonds v A$2.0B prior
• APT.AU Reports H1 (A$) Net -79.2M v -31.6M y/y; adj EBITDA 47.9M v 7.7M y/y; Rev 417.2M v 220.3M y/y; Enters into transactions to increase ownership of Afterpay US to 93% from 80%, launches A$1.25B convertible notes offering

Japan

• Nikkei 225 opened +1.4%
• 7269.JP Chairman Osamu Suzuki confirms to retire; Raises FY20/21 Rev ¥34.8T (prior Rev ¥3.0T) – yesterday after the close
• Japan JGB yields rise: 5-year yield rises to -0.060% (highest since March 2020), 10-year yield rises to 0.125% (highest since Nov 2018)
• 7203.JP Reports Jan global sales 835.7K units, +3.9% y/y (5th consecutive rise); Global production 864.3K units, +4% y/y (5th consecutive rise)
• (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Not currently thinking of cutting sales tax (in line)

Korea

• Kospi opened +1.1%
• (KR) BANK OF KOREA (BOK) LEAVES 7-DAY REPO RATE UNCHANGED AT 0.50%; AS EXPECTED
• 068270.KR European Medicines Agency (EMA) started rolling review of regdanvimab, also known as Regkirona Inj, its COVID antibody treatment

China/Hong Kong

• Hang Seng opened +1.5%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.9%
• (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 Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY20B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net injects CNY0B v Net injects CNY10B prior
• (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4522 v 6.4615 prior
• 2628.HK Responds to the whistle blower; special investigation team has been formed to investigate – CSJ
• (CN) China issues new rules on land transfers for 2021 – Sina

North America

• (CN) US President Biden Trade Nominee Tai said to view China as rival and partner – US financial press
• (US) Fed Vice Chair Clarida: FOMC will keep accommodating until outcomes are reached; will take some time for economy to return to pre-virus levels
• FB Reportedly examining potential news agreements in Canada with local media outlets – press
• JNJ Speculation that FDA could authorize COVID vaccine as soon as this weekend – US financial press

Europe

• STAN.UK Reports FY20 adj Pretax $2.5B v $4.2B y/y, Adj Op Rev $14.8B v $15.3B y/y; Announces share buyback program of $254M
• (DE) ECB’s Schnabel (Germany): pandemic poses risks to short term outlook; Euro area is much better able to deal with lockdowns, this second one is having less of an impact; introduction of a digital euro is still an open issue – ECB

Levels as of 12:15ET

• Hang Seng +1.8%; Shanghai Composite +0.8%; Kospi +2.9%; Nikkei225 +1.5%; ASX 200 +0.8%
• Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.3%, Dax +0.3%; FTSE100 +0.3%
• EUR 1.2183-1.2156; JPY 106.14-105.83; AUD 0.7978-0.7953; NZD 0.7449-0.7420
• Commodity Futures: Gold -0.2% at $1,795/oz; Crude Oil -0.1% at $63.16/brl; Copper +0.3% at $4.34/lb