Asia trades mostly higher, Nikkei lags

Asia Market Update: Asia trades mostly higher, Nikkei lags; Delisting concerns weigh on certain CN/HK firms; USD Index FUTs drop, precious metals and commodities rise; Georgia in focus.

General Trend

- Kospi outperforms; Chipmakers rise, Samsung hits record high; Hyundai Motor, SK Innovation and Samsung SDI rise amid possible battery supply deal

- Gainers in Australia include Resources, Consumer and Financial firms ; Link Administration declines over 13% on withdrawn takeover offer

- PBOC property loan crackdown weighs on financial and property firms in Shanghai; Consumer cos. rise, Kweichow Moutai reported prelim results

- Large energy and telecom firms drop in HK amid delisting concerns; TECH and Property indices rise

- China telecoms that will be delisted from NYSE all declined, oil names fall on speculation that they could be next to be delisted in US

- Nikkei declined by over 1% amid concerns that a virus emergency could be declared for certain parts of the country; the index later pared losses

- Glove makers decline in Malaysia, no specific news initially seen

- US dollar weakens at the start of 2021; SGD, KRW, CNY and MYR all trade at the strongest levels since 2018

- The Georgia runoff election is due to be held on Jan 5th (Tues)

- BTC/USD Rises above $34,500 level (new record high)

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened +0.1%

- LNK.AU SS&C has withdrawn its proposal; board will continue to consider all alternatives to maximise value

- (AU) Australia Dec Final PMI Manufacturing: 55.7 v 56.0 prelim (confirms 7th month in expansion)

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened +0.5%

- (JP) Japan, Tokyo to ask restaurants to close no later than 20:00 as part of COVID measures - Nikkei

- (JP) Japan Dec Final PMI Manufacturing: 50.0 v 49.7 prelim (highest since Apr 2019)

- (JP) Japan PM Suga: To consider request by Tokyo and surrounding prefectures on declaring state of emergency due to coronavirus; Will finalize extent of declaration quickly, considering calling election within time limits

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.5%

- (KR) South Korea president Moon approval rating now at 34.1% (fresh all time low) - survey took place over the weekend

- (KR) South Korea Dec PMI Manufacturing: 52.9 v 52.9 prior (3rd consecutive expansion)

- (KR) North Korea expected to start party congress this week, where an economic plan and policy directions on relations with the US and South Korea to be announced - Korean press

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened -0.5%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%

- CHINA DEC CAIXIN PMI MANUFACTURING: 53.0 V 54.7E (8th consecutive month in expansion)

- (CN) China Commerce Ministry: China will take "necessary measures" to safeguard the interests of its companies, the move it an "abuse of national security and inconsistent with market rules" after the NYSE began delisting 3 Chinese telecom firms accused of having military ties Friday

- (CN) China oil companies speculated to be delisted from US markets following telecoms - press

- (HK) Macau Dec Casino Rev (MOP): 7.8B v 6.8B prior; Y/Y: -65.8% v -70.5% prior

- (HK) Hong Kong Financial Sec Chan: HK will face major challenges in H1 but expect economy to have a strong recovery in H2 and see positive GDP in 2021 - personal blog

- (CN) China will cut electric vehicle (EV) subsidies by 20% this year – press

- China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY20B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY90B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net drain CNY120B v Net inject CNY80B prior

- 600519.CN Reports prelim FY20 (CNY) Net 45.5B v 46.5Be, Rev 97.7B +10% y/y (Dec 31)

- China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5408 v 6.5249 prior

- (CN) Regional Govts in China said to be transferring assets onto books of local investment companies (lowers official debt to asset ratio) in order to get around borrowing limits set by central Govt - FT

Other

- OPEC+ Sec Gen Barkindo: We are ready to adjust plans for a gradual increase in oil output by 2M bpd in the coming months, based on market conditions

- (SG) SINGAPORE Q4 ADVANCED GDP Q/Q: +2.1% V 1.3%E; Y/Y: -3.8% V -4.7%E; 2020 GDP Y/Y: -5.8% v -6.0%e

- (TW) Taiwan Dec PMI Manufacturing: 59.4 v 56.9 prior (highest since Jan 2011)

North America

- (US) Senators Cruz and others said they will not certify election results on Jan 6th without investigation into "voter fraud"

- (US) Ahead of Senate run off vote in Georgia polls now showing both seats favoring Democrats (prior 1 was favored to go to Republicans) - US press

Europe

- (NL) Netherlands Central Bank President Knot: Govt should only look at reducing fiscal support once the economy has returned to the “old level", expect programs to run to the end of 2021 - local press

- (DE) Germany expected to extend its COVID lockdown to the end of January (current levels triple the level considered safe by authorities) - press

Levels as of 12:15ET

- Hang Seng +0.7%; Shanghai Composite +0.9%; Kospi +2.4%; Nikkei225 -0.7%; ASX 200 +1.5%

- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.0%; Nasdaq100 -0.1%, Dax +0.4%; FTSE100 +0.5%

- EUR 1.2260-1.2230; JPY 103.31-102.94; AUD 0.7722-0.7682; NZD 0.7208-0.7181

- Commodity Futures: Gold +1.7% at $1,926/oz; Crude Oil +1.1% at $49.06/brl; Copper +1.4% at $3.56/lb