Asia trades mixed after losses on Wall Street, modest moves have been seen

General trend

- Hang Seng has extended gains after the higher open [TECH index rises over 2%; Property firms trade generally lower after Q1 earnings from Vanke].

- Nikkei has lagged after outperforming during prior session, currently trades near the opening level [Financials move generally lower; Automakers resume declines; Topix Iron & Steel index declines ahead of earnings from Tokyo Steel; Nidec falls over 5% after issuing results/guidance].

- S&P ASX 200 has moved modestly lower following the flat open [Consumer indices were among the decliners].

- Shanghai Composite ended the morning session flat [Property index declined; Consumer Staples outperformed].

- Companies seen reporting during the NY morning include Autoliv, American Express, Gentex, Honeywell International, Kimberly-Clark, Regions Financial, Schlumberger.

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened flat

- (AU) Australia sells A$800M v A$800M indicated in 3.25% April 2025 bonds, avg yield 0.462%, bid to cover 3.61x.

-*(AU) AUSTRALIA APR PRELIMINARY PMI MANUFACTURING: 59.6 V 56.8 PRIOR (11th month of expansion and a record high); PMI Services: 58.6 v 55.5 prior (8th month of expansion, Record high).

- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) offers to buy a total of NZ$350M in government bonds next week under QE program v NZ$400M prior.

- (NZ) New Zealand Health Min Hipkins: to limit arrivals from India, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan.

- (NZ) New Zealand Mar Credit Card Spending M/M: +3.1% v -1.5% prior.

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.2%, Shanghai Composite -0.1%.

- China Minsheng Banking [01988.HK]: Says it has filed police report and will pursue legal actions [comments after social media report noted the firm had been taken over by China authorities].

- (CN) Said that Exchanges in China [Shanghai and Shenzhen] have strengthened rules related to bond approvals – Press.

- (CN) China SAFE (FX Regulator): Q1 China Commercial Banks net purchases of FX $88.5B; CNY exchange rate is overall stable with small 2 way moves.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4934 v 6.4902 prior.

- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net CNY0B v Net CNY0B prior.

- (CN) China: Rules related to live streaming platform sales are effective from May 25th.

- Ant Financial [6688.HK]: PBoC said to be seeking control of consumer lending data for state-controlled credit scoring company run by former PBoC Officials - Press.

Japan

- Nikkei opened -0.9%

-*(JP) JAPAN MAR NATIONAL CPI Y/Y: -0.2% V -0.2%E, CPI EX-FRESH FOOD (CORE) Y/Y: -0.1% V -0.2%E.

-*(JP) JAPAN APR PRELIMINARY PMI MANUFACTURING: 53.3 V 52.7 PRIOR (3rd month of expansion).

- (JP) Japan recommends declaring state of emergency in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo from Apr 25 - May 11.

- (JP) Japan Prefecture Hokkaido said to be considering request for coronavirus measures - Press.

- (JP) Japan PM Suga: To support companies affected by state of emergency with existing budget.

- (JP) Japan PM Suga to hold press conference at 11:00GMT.

- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Discussing support related to state of emergency.

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BoJ) Gov Kuroda: Will continue to closely monitor banks' functioning.

Korea.

- Kospi opened -0.1%.

Other Asia

- (SG) Singapore Mar CPI M/M: 0.2% v 0.2%e; Y/Y: 1.3% v 1.2%e; CPI Core Y/Y: 0.5% v 0.4%e.

North America

- (US) Clarification: Pres Biden plans to increase capital gains tax for top earners to 39.6% marginal rate (not 43.4% from earlier headlines).

Europe

-( UK) Apr GfK Consumer Confidence: -15 v -12e.

- (IR) Ireland Apr Consumer Confidence Index: 77.9 v 77.1 prior.

- First Group [FGP.UK]: Expected to announce the sale of Firststudent and Firsttransit, the US-based businesses are said to be worth ~$4.5B - UK press.

Levels as of 00:20 ET

- Nikkei 225, -0.8%, ASX 200 -0.2% , Hang Seng +0.8%; Shanghai Composite -0.1% ; Kospi +0.3%.

- Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.1%, Dax +0.2%; FTSE100 -0.4%.

- EUR 1.2026-1.2012 ; JPY 108.00-107.80 ; AUD 0.7736-0.7696 ;NZD 0.7179-0.7150.

- Gold +0.2% at $1,785/oz; Crude Oil +0.8% at $61.89/brl; Copper +0.6% at $4.2932/lb.