Asian government bond yields generally lower post Fed decision

Asia Market Update: Asian government bond yields generally lower post Fed decision; Aussie 3-yr yield moves back above RBA cash rate after unemployment data, Kiwi rises after GDP data

 

General Trend:

- Asian equities trade mixed as traders assess Fed statements/forecasts

- IT shares out perform in early trading in China

- Geely reports FY results in line, China Mobile results mixed

- Nikkei 225 closed for holiday, Nikkei Futures decline amid Yen strength

- South Korean chipmakers rise after earnings from Micron

- Tencent expected to report Q4/FY18 earnings after close in Hong Kong

- Australian financials track post Fed declines in US banks

- Iron ore miners trade generally higher in Australia, Vale remains in focus

- Aussie unemployment rate hits ~8-year low, participation rate declined

- New Zealand Dollar (NZD) rises as q/q GDP in line, y/y GDP had slowest growth rate since 2015

- South Korea prelim March chip exports -25% y/y, exports to China -12.6% y/y

- Bank of England (BoE) rate decision expected later today

- Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia central banks to also meet today

- North America Feb SEMI equipment industry billings due after US close on Thursday

 

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened -0.2%

- (AU) AUSTRALIA FEB EMPLOYMENT CHANGE: 4.6K V 15.0KE; UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 4.9% V 5.0%E (lowest level since June 2011)

- (NZ) NEW ZEALAND Q4 GDP Q/Q: 0.6% V 0.6%E; Y/Y: 2.3% V 2.5%E (matches slowest growth since 2015)

- (AU) Australia Feb RBA Govt FX Transactions (A$): -517M v -546M prior

- (AU) Australia sells A$500M v A$500M indicated in June 2019 notes, avg yield 1.73%, bid to cover 4.42x

- (NZ) New Zealand sells NZ$200M v NZ$200M indicated in 2.75% 2037 bonds; avg yield 2.3779% v 2.6079% prior; bid to cover 2.5x v 2.9x prior

- (NZ) New Zealand to ban military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles; gun buyback to be in range of NZ$100M-200M; new law expected to take effect by April 11th

Japan

- Nikkei 225 closed for holiday

- (JP) Japan PM Abe plans to visit the US in April to meet with US President Trump - Japanese Press

- (JP) Japan Cabinet Office (Govt) Mar Monthly Economic Report: Cuts overall economic assessment citing recent weakness in exports and industrial production (1st cut in 3 years) (after the close yesterday)

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov Kuroda: Central bank said to be on the dovish side; to continue it persistent large scale easing (after the close yesterday)

- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: No intention to retract comments on BoJ, no difference with PM Abe on BoJ's 2% price target (after the close yesterday)

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.3%

- (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov Lee: It's not time to lower rates; monetary policy is in accommodating trend; uncertainties related to US Fed's policies have eased to a large extent - Yonhap

- (KR) North Korea earth tremor thought to be natural not related to testing – Yonhap

- (KR) South Korea Mar 1-20 Exports y/y: -4.9% v -11.7% prior; Imports y/y: -3.4% v -17.3% prior

- (KR) South Korea to cut stock transaction tax by 0.05% in 2019

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.2%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%

- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips OMO for second consecutive session; Net: CNY0B injection v CNY0B prior

- (CN) China PBoC sets yuan reference rate: 6.6580 v 6.7101 prior (strongest level since mid-July 2018)

- (CN) Banks in China have been told by regulator to disclose stability data every 6 months - Chinese Press

- (HK) Hong Kong Chief Exec Lam: Worried about property prices rising

- (HK) Hong Kong Monetary Authority Chief Exec Chan: HKMA will continue to maintain the stability of HK$ peg; still a gap between HK$ and USD interest rates, which triggers outflows of HKD and drive the currency weak

- (CN) China National Nuclear Corporation plans to build its first floating nuclear power plant within the year - Chinese press

- 941.HK Reports FY18 (CNY) Net 117.8B v 114.3B y/y, EBITDA 275.5B v 270.4B y/y; Rev 736.8B v 741B y/y; Will strive to achieve more than 2.0 billion connections, favourable growth in telecommunications services revenue and, on a comparable basis3 , stable-to-rising growth in profit in 2019

- 175.HK Reports FY18 (CNY) Net 12.6B v 10.6B y/y, Rev 106.6B v 92.8B y/y; Affirms FY19 targets

North America

- (US) FOMC LEAVES TARGET RANGE UNCHANGED BETWEEN 2.25-2.50%; SIGNALS NO HIKES THIS YEAR AND ONE RATE HIKE IN 2020

- (US) FED: Balance Sheet Normalization Plans: to slow reduction of holdings starting in May and conclude run off in Sept

- (US) Fed Chair Powell: US economy is strong and we intend to use our policy to keep it there - FOMC press

- MU Guides Q3 $0.85 +/-$0.10 v $1.38e, Adj Rev $4.8B +/-$0.2B v $5.55Be; DRAM bit shipments to grow sequentially, and grow at much higher rates in Q4; NAND bit shipments modest sequential decline, growth to resume in Q4 - earnings call

- (BR) BRAZIL CENTRAL BANK (BCB) LEAVES SELIC TARGET RATE UNCHANGED AT 6.50%; AS EXPECTED

- (US) White House Economic Adviser Hassett: Sees 2019 GDP at 3.0% - CNN

Europe

- (UK) PM May: UK will not leave EU on time on March 20th as previously expected; not ready to delay Brexit any further than June 30th

- (NL) Netherlands provincial election exit poll: Dutch ruling coalition to lose its Senate majority

- (DE) German Finance Ministry: Feb Tax Rev -1.6% y/y; YTD +0.2% y/y; German growth likely to remain subdued through H1; Brexit disputes dampening expectations

 

Levels as of 1:20 ET

- Nikkei 225, closed, ASX 200 flat, Hang Seng +0.2%; Shanghai Composite +0.7%; Kospi +0.4%

- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.1%; Nasdaq100 +0.3%, Dax +0.5%; FTSE100 +0.3%

- EUR 1.1438-1.1412 ; JPY 110.74-110.40 ; AUD 0.7168-0.7113 ;NZD 0.6939-0.6863

- Gold +1.3% at $1,319/oz; Crude Oil flat at $60.25/brl; Copper +0.9% at $2.953/lb