Asian equities move off of the best levels despite US gains

Asia Market Update: Asian equities move off of the best levels despite US gains; Alibaba rises after disclosing record antitrust fine in China; Jack Ma not initially mentioned?

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.