Asia trades generally higher; CN probe weighs on shares of Alibaba

Asia Market Update: Asia trades generally higher; CN probe weighs on shares of Alibaba; FT reported the EU and UK are poised to announce a trade deal, GBP outperforms; status of US stimulus bill remains unclear.

General Trend

- Hang Seng TECH index drops over 3%, Alibaba weighs on e-commerce names

- Topix indices trade generally higher in Japan; Information/Communication index lags

- Energy and Resources firms were among the gainers in Australia

- Shanghai Composite lagged during the morning session; IT, Consumer Staples and Property firms were among the decliners

- China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly press conference on Thursdays

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened +0.2%

- CDV.AU Dongshan Investments to make off market takeover offer of A$1.20/shr

- TNK.AU Alceon Group submits revised proposal of A$1.75/shr (prior A$1.35/shr), A$106.9M in cash or cash/shares in new listed company

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened +0.4%

- (JP) BOJ Gov Kuroda: Japan Economy likely to improve moderately as a trend; Does not expect return to deflation

- (JP) Japan Investors Net Buying of Foreign Bonds: ¥802.4B v ¥770.4B prior; Foreign Net Buying of Japan Stocks: -¥504.3B v +¥159.9B prior

- (JP) Japan Ex PM Abe summoned to Diet for Friday; Japan Prosecutors expected to not charge Former PM Abe on using funds for parties – Press

- (JP) Japan MOF sells ¥3.0T v ¥3.0T indicated in 0.1% 2-year JGBs: avg yield: -0.1290% v -0.1390% prior, bid to cover 4.18x v 3.21x prior

Korea

 -Kospi opened +0.1%

- 042670.KR Hyundai Heavy signs MOU to acquire 35.4% stake of Doosan Infracore, from its parent, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction

- (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK) to extend SPV, Corporate Bonds and Commercial Paper purchases for 6-months

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened 0.0%; Shanghai Composite opened 0.0%

- (CN) China Nov Swift Global Payments CNY: 2.0% v 1.66% prior

- 9988.HK China said to probe Alibaba on suspected monopoly

- 6688.HK China regulators and PBOC will meet with Ant Group soon to provide guidance on implementing financial supervision and fair competition practices; Comments on report it will comply with regulatory requirements

- 600519.CN Parent company, Moutai Group, to transfer 4% stake to China Govt backed entity, controlled by the Guizhou provincial govt, at the request of regulator – filing

- SVA Has delayed announcement related to the results from Phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial until Jan; said to have requested 15 more days to analyze the data with the results from other trials - US financial press

- China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY40B in 7-day and 14-day repos v Injects CNY110B prior; Net injection CNY30B v Net inject CNY100B prior

- China PBOC to conduct CNY5.0B in 3-month Central Bank Bill Swap (CBS) operation on today's session v CNY5.0B prior

- China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5361 v 6.5558 prior

Other

- (SG) Singapore Nov Industrial Production M/M: 7.2% v 2.7%e; Y/Y: 17.9% v 14.1%e; Electronics output Y/Y: +34.9% v -0.6% prior; Pharmaceutical Y/Y: 50.8% v +14.6% prior

North America

- (US) US House Democrats confirm to offer bill to send $2.0K in direct stimulus payments

- House GOP Leader McCarthy has indicated President Trump has not decided on vetoing the COVID relief bill - press

Europe

- (UK) PM Johnson to make Brexit announcement at 11:00 local time - UK press

- (UK) BBC's Kuenssberg: "Negotiators are still talking (apparently about specific quotas for specific species of fish) but the UK Cabinet is about to gather on a conference call - that wouldn't happen if No 10 wasn't by now very confident that deal is shortly to be finalised for real"

- (EU) EC spokesman Eric Mamer: Brexit work will continue throughout the night; Commission statement on Brexit deal not expected until Thursday Morning (Dec 24th)

Levels as of 12:15ET

- Hang Seng +0.2%; Shanghai Composite -0.4%; Kospi +1.7%; Nikkei225 +0.5%; ASX 200 +0.3%

- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.2%

- EUR 1.2216-1.2184; JPY 103.62-103.50; AUD 0.7597-0.7569; NZD 0.7107-0.7090

- Commodity Futures: Gold +0.1% at $1,880/oz; Crude Oil +0.7% at $48.45/brl; Copper +0.1% at $3.55/lb