General Trend:
- Trading remains light amid the last day of Easter holiday
- Major currencies little changed, while Korean Won makes multi-year high
- S&P futures slightly lower ahead of US open after long holiday weekend
- China official PMI and Caixin both remain in expansion
- Japan Q1 Tankan survey shows first decline in 2 years
Headlines/Economic Data
Japan
- Nikkei 225 opened -0.1%; closed -0.3%
- (JP) JAPAN Q1 TANKAN LARGE ALL INDUSTRY MANUFACTURING INDEX: 24 V 25E; LARGE MANUFACTURING OUTLOOK: 20 V 22E; LARGE ALL INDUSTRY CAPEX 2.3% V 1.0%E
- Toshiba, 6502.JP Sale of Westinghouse claims delayed; In process of reviewing FY17/18 forecast
- (JP) Japan Mar Final PMI Manufacturing: 53.1 v 53.2 prelim
Korea
- Kospi opened +0.4%
- (KR) US and South Korea start scaled down annual military drills, no response from North Korea
- (KR) South Korea Mar Trade Balance: $6.9B v $5.8Be
- POSCO, 005490.KR On its 50-yr anniversary will look to reduce the amount of profit from from steel by half and look to replace it with profit from biopharma and lithium – Korean press
- (KR) South Korea Mar PMI Manufacturing: 49.1 v 50.3 prior
- (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov Lee: FX rate is determined by markets; hard to make big rate hikes when potential growth is low
- (KR) Bank of Korea (BoK) sells KRW540B in 6-month monetary stabilization bonds (MSBs): yield 1.73% v 1.68% prior
- (KR) North Korea leader Kim Jong Un enjoyed concert with wife and hundreds of citizens by South Korean pop stars visiting Pyongyang
China/Hong Kong
- Hang Seng closed for holiday; Shanghai Composite opened flat
- (HK) Macau Mar Gaming Rev MOP25.9B, y/y: 22.2% v 16.6%e
- (CN) CHINA MAR GOVT OFFICIAL MANUFACTURING PMI: 51.5 V 50.7E; Non-manufacturing PMI: 54.6 v 54.5e; Composite PMI: 54.0 v 52.9 prior
- (CN) China Mar Caixin PMI Manufacturing: 51.0 v 51.7e
- (CN) China imposing new tariffs on 128 US products including meat and fruit in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminum, effective today; 25% tariff on pork and new 15% tariff on 120 other products including fruit – press
- (CN) China MOFCOM: Trade dispute should be resolved through dialogue; hope US withdraws measures that violate WTO rules
- (CN) China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC): Announces pilot plan to encourage qualified companies in select industries to float shares on its domestic stock market, in order for tech giants to list at home
- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips OMO (7th straight session) v skipped prior; Net: CNY20B drain v CNY30B drain prior
- (CN) China PBoC sets yuan reference rate at 6.2764 v 6.2881 prior
- (CN) China politician Yang Jiechi’s two-day trip to South Korea is a sign that the Communist Party aims to take a bigger role in diplomacy – SCMP
- (CN) China Foreign Min Wang Yi: China will import $8T of goods and attract $600B of foreign investment in the next five years
- (CN) China Protection and Coordination Department at the State Intellectual Property Office Dir Zhicheng: Issues new guidelines tightly reviewing the transfer of intellectual property rights to overseas buyers with the aim to build a more fair and transparent regulation process for technology exports and foreign investment
Australia/New Zealand
- ASX 200 closed for holiday
- (AU) Australia Mar Melbourne Institute Inflation m/m: +0.1% v -0.1% prior; y/y: 2.1% v 2.1% prior
- Looking ahead: RBA meets tomorrow to decided on cash target rate, widely expected to be left unchanged
Other Asia
- (SG) Singapore Q1 URA Property Index q/q: 3.1% v 0.8% prior
- (TW) Taiwan Central Bank Gov rejects media reports of a rate hike plan; Market is over interpreting that the central bank will raise rates in order to let TWD appreciate
- North America
- Hudson’s Bay, HBC.CA Reports data breach involving in store customer payment card data at certain Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5TH, and Lord & Taylor stores in North America
- President Trump: Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL! – tweet
Europe
- (EU) Japan indicates that a trade deal with the EU is a greater priority than one with the UK – press
Levels as of 02:00ET
- Shanghai Composite +0.1%; Kospi -0.0%
- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 -0.5%
- EUR 1.2330-1.2311; JPY 106.41-106.19; AUD 0.7697-0.7672;NZD 0.7239-0.7225
- Apr Gold +0.5% at $1,329/oz; May Crude Oil +0.4% at $65.17/brl; May Copper +0.8% at $3.05/lb
