Asian Equities Move Off Of The Best Levels Despite US Gains

Apr 12 21, 07:03 GMT

General Trend

Hang Seng and HK TECH indices have reversed the opening gains [Alibaba rises over 8%; Some wonder which firms could be targeted by China after Alibaba; AAC Technology (Apple supplier) rose on Q1 guidance]
Shanghai Composite extended declines during the morning session [Consumer and Industrial indices declined; Property sector outperformed; Wanhua Chemical (world’s largest producer of MDI) declines after issuing Q1 guidance]
Nikkei has turned lower after the higher open [Topix Marine Transportation index drops over 4%; Toshiba rises amid continued M&A speculation]; Japan corporate earnings have been in focus [Aeon Co. Aeon Financial, Chiyoda Co. and Yaskawa Electric all decline]
Australia’s Resources, Energy ,Consumer Discretionary and Financial indices are among the decliners.
US equity FUTS have remained modestly lower.
Some cited focus on rising COVID cases for underperformance in India’s Sensex.
LG Chem and SK Innovation rise on settlement agreement.
Nanya Technology [Taiwanese DRAM maker] reversed opening gain amid recently reported earnings/guidance.
Commodity currencies extended declines; Copper also continued to move lower.
Australia is expected to price Nov 2032 bond syndicate on Tuesday (April 13th)
China Mar Trade Balance due to be released on Tuesday (April 13th)

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened 0.0%.
3PL.AU To acquire Blake Elearning for A$185M in all stock transaction; Managing director and CEO Rebekah O’Flaherty resigns.
(AU) Banks in Australia face record refinancing task in 2023 and 2024, cites recently released RBA Financial Stability Review – BankingDay.

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened +0.4%
6723.JP On Friday afternoon, resumed operations at the clean room that was damaged by fire last month.
(JP) Japan Mar PPI (CGPI) M/M: 0.8% v 0.4%e; Y/Y: 1.0% v 0.5%e (First increase y/y in 13 months)

Korea

Kospi opened +0.1%.
096770.KR Agrees to pay KRW2.0T to settle electric vehicle battery dispute with LG Energy Solution and will withdraw all their other pending litigations to end their two-year legal battle under agreement between the companies.
005490.KR Reports Q1 (KRW) Op 1.55T v 705.3B y/y, Rev 16.0T v 14.6T y/y.
(KR) South Korea Mar 1-10 Imports Y/Y: 14.8% v 31.4% prior; Exports Y/Y: 24.8 v 25.2% prior; Chip Exports y/y: 24.8 v 25.2% prior.
096770.KR Agrees to pay KRW2.0T to settle electric vehicle battery dispute with LG Energy Solution and will withdraw all their other pending litigations to end their two-year legal battle under agreement between the companies.

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.3%; Shanghai Composite opened -0.1%.
BABA China regulators impose record $2.8B (RMB18.2B) antitrust on against Alibaba.
9988.HK CEO Zhang: Do not see material negative impact from exclusivity change required by regulator, will do more to help merchants lower operating costs – post fine conference call.
1099.HK China regulator approved the company’s third Covid-19 vaccine to start clinical trials.
(CN) China has nearly 10% of its population vaccinated against COVID, targeting to reach heard immunity by early 2022; expects to produce 3.0B COVID vaccine doses by the end of 2021 – press.
(CN) China Qingming Festival weekend (April 3-5th) saw retail sales +17.8% y/y (1st major holiday since relaxed COVID restrictions)
(CN) China CASS researcher Zhang Bin: Rapid increase of local govt debt is the biggest systemic risk in China, PBOC should be more like the US Fed and adopt a more aggressive monetary policy approach and use QE – SCMP.
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5578 v 6.5409 prior.
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net injects CNY10B v CNY0B prior.
(CN) China regulators said to be putting more resources at investigating anti-competitive behavior at its largest companies – press.

Other

2330.TW Said to raise FY21 capex to $30-31B (from $25-28B currently) – Taiwan press.

North America

(US) Fed Chair Powell: Will keep supporting economy until recovery is complete, , one risk is opening too quickly; studying digital currencies but no decision made, could be a benefit but involves subtle, complex set of questions – 60 minute interview.
(US) US President Biden administration said to consider China digital yuan a possible threat, want to better understand details of digital yuan – press.
IR Said to be near to a deal sell golf cart division to Platinum Equity for $1.7B – Press.
PFE Israeli study (not peer reviewed, smaller sample size) suggests Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine may be less effective against South African variant – press.
NUAN Microsoft said to be in talks to acquire Nuance in a $56/shr, $16B deal – press

Europe

(EU) EU and UK said to be making progress on talks related to Northern Ireland in talks last week – press.
(UK) Said that certain business officials and MPs are looking to improve Brexit Trade deal via setting up independent commission – FT.
(UK) Said that certain business officials and MPs are looking to improve Brexit Trade deal via setting up independent commission – FT.

Levels as of 01:15ET

Hang Seng -1.1%; Shanghai Composite -0.8%; Kospi +0.0%; Nikkei225 -0.7%; ASX 200 -0.3%.
Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.3%; Nasdaq100 -0.3%, Dax -0.4%; FTSE100 -0.5%.
EUR 1.1904-1.1885; JPY 109.78-109.47 ;AUD 0.7629-0.7595; NZD 0.7043-0.7014.
Commodity Futures: Gold -0.4% at $1,737/oz; Crude Oil +0.0% at $59.33/brl; Copper -1.2% at $3.99/lb.