Asia Tracks Modest Gains On Wall Street

Jun 25 21, 06:08 GMT

General trend

Financials trade generally higher after rise in the US.
Nikkei has remained modestly higher throughout the session [Topix Iron & Steel and Electric Appliances indices have outperformed]; Panasonic rises on Tesla news; Oracle Japan drops over 14% on financial results; Toshiba holds shareholders’ meeting; Takashimaya may report Q1 results.
Equity markets in China have extended gains.
Shanghai Composite Consumer Staples, Financial and Industrial indices are among the gainers.
Hang Seng TECH index has risen by over 2%.
S&P ASX 200 has been supported by gains in the Resources and Financial indices.
Kospi again hits record high.
US data releases include May Core PCE.
Companies due to report during the NY morning include JinkoSolar, Carmax, Paychex.

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

ASX 200 opened flat.
(AU) RBA Gov Lowe Jun 30th (Wed) appearance at the Australian Banking Association (ABA) Banking Conference has been postponed, cites Sydney coronavirus outbreak.
(AU) Australia 11 Month to May Underlying cash deficit A$125.4B v deficit A$139.3Be.
(AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$289.4B v A$273.0B prior (Record high).
(AU) New South Wales Premier Berejiklian: All existing coroanvirus restrictions extended until next Friday (July 2nd); Four local Sydney areas will be locked down until at least July 2nd.
(NZ) New Zealand May Trade Balance (NZD): 469M v 388M prior.
(NZ) Westpac now expects the RBNZ to raise OCR in Aug 2022 (previously expected rates to be unchanged until 2023); ANZ economists said to note risk of RBNZ rate hike before the end of 2021, but maintain call for Feb 2022 rate hike – US financial press.
(NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) offers to buy a total of NZ$200M in government bonds next week under QE program v NZ$200M prior.

China/Hong Kong

Hang Seng opened +0.4%, Shanghai Composite flat
(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY30B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY30B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net inject CNY20B v Net CNY20B prior
(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4744 v 6.4824 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.

Japan

Nikkei 225 opened +0.9%.
(JP) JAPAN JUN TOKYO CPI Y/Y: 0.0% V -0.3%E; CPI (EX-FRESH FOOD) Y/Y: 0.0% V -0.1%E.
(JP) Japan Cabinet Office (Govt) Jun Economic Report: Maintains overall economic assessment of seeing further weakness in parts of the economy.
(JP) Bank of Japan Q1 Flow of Funds report: Japan total household assets ¥1,946T, +7.1% y/y.
(JP) Japan Health Min Tamura: State of emergency may be needed if coronavirus cases continue increasing.

Korea

Kospi opened +0.1%.
(KR) South Korea Jul Business Manufacturing Survey: 99 v 97 prior.
(KR) South Korea said to be removing bank dividend restrictions in July; Financial Services Commission (FSC) to give banks the freedom to decide on the sizes of dividend payouts – Press.

Other Asia

(SG) Singapore May Industrial Production M/M: +7.2% v -0.5%e; Y/Y: 30.0% v 24.1%e.

North America

(US) PRES BIDEN: WE HAVE AN INFRASTRUCTURE DEAL; WE MADE ‘SERIOUS COMPROMISES ON BOTH ENDS’.
(US) White House: the bipartisan $1.2T infrastructure framework includes $579B in new spending – press.
(US) Federal Reserve: All 23 banks stayed above minimum capital levels in stress tests; additional restrictions put in place during the COVID event will end.
Nike [NKE]: Reports Q4 $0.93 v $0.51e, Rev $12.3B v $11.1Be; Guides FY22 Rev growth low double digits to over $50B v $48.9Be.
Fedex [FDX] Reports Q4 $5.01 v $5.04e, Rev $22.6B v $21.7Be; Guides initial FY22 $20.50-21.50 v $20.60e.
Tesla [TSLA]: Panasonic sold all shares it owned in company in March; the cos. to maintain battery relationship – Nikkei.
(MX) MEXICO CENTRAL BANK (BANXICO) RAISES OVERNIGHT RATE BY 25BPS TO 4.25%; NOT EXPECTED; vote was split.

Europe

Levels as of 01:20 ET

Nikkei 225, +0.6%, ASX 200 +0.5% , Hang Seng +1.1%; Shanghai Composite +1% ; Kospi +0.5%.
Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.1%; Nasdaq100 flat, Dax +0.2%; FTSE100 +0.1%.
EUR 1.1945-1.1926 ; JPY 110.98-110.80 ; AUD 0.7595-0.7578 ;NZD 0.7077-0.7042.
Gold flat at $1,776/oz; Crude Oil flat at $73.34/brl; Copper +0.2%% at $4.3185/lb.