Asian equities are mostly gaining after rise on Wall Street

Asia Market Update: Asian equities are mostly gaining after rise on Wall St.; CN financials rise amid official comments on Huarong; TWD gains on UST report.

General Trend

- Equity indices are generally higher after the flat openings; Nasdaq FUTs erased opening decline; Banks generally track Friday’s rise in the US [US 10-yr Treasury yield rose on Fri.; Huarong Securities confirmed bond payment].

- Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng have moved higher after the flat opens [Financials rebound in Shanghai amid focus on Huarong; Shanghai Consumer Discretionary index extended gain; Shanghai IT index rises over 1.7%; HK TECH index reversed decline; Geely continues to rise; Trip.com rises over 3% in HK debut] ; China Tower may report results later today, China Mobile expected to report on April 20th.

- Nikkei has lagged amid rise in the Yen [Topix Marine Transportation index rises over 1.5%; Air Transportation, Real Estate and Securities indices are among the decliners; Toshiba declines on press report related to CVC].

- S&P ASX 200 has been supported by gains in Financial, Resources and Consumer Discretionary cos. [Energy index lagged; Sims Metal rose on guidance; Cooper Energy rises after production update]; Aussie lithium cos. to merge [Galaxy Resources and Orocobre].

- Sensex drop over 2.5% amid record for new COVID cases in India; Rupee also declines.

- RBA is due to release minutes on Tuesday (April 20th).

- China PBOC is expected to leave its 1 and 5-year loan prime rates unchanged on Tuesday (April 20th).

- China Boao Forum is being held April 18-21st (Sun-Wed).

- Companies due to report during the NY morning include Coca-Cola, M&T Bank, ProLogis.

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

-ASX 200 opened 0.0%.

- GXY.AU Orocobre to acquire Galaxy in all-share transaction, merger valued at A$4.0B.

- CWN.AU Receives unsolicited non-binding proposals from Oaktree; provides up to A$3.0B in funding commitment to Crown.

Japan

-Nikkei 225 opened 0.0%.

- 6502.JP Reportedly CVC plans to delay submitting a formal proposal for Toshiba acquisition after CEO change – Nikkei (Friday after the close).

- (JP) Japan Mar Trade Balance: ¥663.7B v ¥493.2Be; Adj Trade Balance: +¥297.8B v -¥212.9Be.

- (JP) Japan Feb Final Industrial Production M/M: -1.3% v -2.1% prelim; Y/Y: -2.0% v -2.6% prelim.

-6723.JP CEO: Targeting to have full production by May at plant impacted by fire.

Korea

-Kospi opened +0.1%.

- (KR) South Korea President Moon said to be considering replacing Finance Minister and others sometime in May - Korean press.

- (KR) According to analysts South Korea Q1 GDP is thought to have returned to pre-pandemic levels, citing comments from President Moon speaking to ministers and business leaders - Yonhap.

China/Hong Kong

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

- (CN) China PBOC Vice Gov Li Bo: China will expand digital yuan experiments to more cities, but there is no specific timetable for official rollout - speaking at meeting Sunday.

- 2799.HK China CBIRC Vice Head Xiao Yuanqi: Watching China Huarong Asset Management 'closely'; currently operating normally and had ample liquidity, the comments were made following a briefing - financial press.

- 2799.HK Regulators in China said to have asked certain banks not to withhold loans to the co; certain state banks have been told to be prepared to provide support to Huarong - financial press.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5233 v 6.5288 prior.

- Trip.com 9961.HK Opens at HK$281/shr on its first day of trade v HK$268/hr pricing.

- (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 Energy Admin Draft: China Solar and Wind power generation to reach ~11% of total power production in 2021.

Other

- BTC/USD Speculation that US Treasury is close to more regulation related to money laundering a cryptocurrency and a blackout in China's Xinjiang region caused almost half of the Bitcoin mining network to go offline.

- (TW) Taiwan Central Bank Gov Yang: Sees steady economic growth this year; May revise GDP Growth forecast upwards - comments to lawmakers.

- (IN) India Govt is rerouting oxygen used in the steel making process to meet the medical needs related to COVID - India press.

North America

- (CA) Canada budget to propose sales tax for online platforms and e-commerce warehouses from July 1st and a digital services tax on big Web companies starting Jan 1, 2022 - budget to be presented Monday to parliament.

- TSLA Autonomously driving Tesla crashes in Texas killing the 2 passengers - Press.

Europe

- (UK) Apr Rightmove House Prices M/M: 2.1% v 0.8% prior; Y/Y: 5.1% v 2.7% prior (record high).

- (UK) University of Oxford to purposely infect a group of people age 18-30 who have previously been naturally infected with COVID, to it again to determine what dose of coronavirus is needed to cause reinfection, and what this may mean for developing protective immunity.

Levels as of 01:15ET

- Hang Seng +0.5%; Shanghai Composite +1.2%; Kospi +0.2%; Nikkei225 +0.1%; ASX 200 +0.2%.

- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 +0.1%, Dax -0.3%; FTSE100 -0.2%.

- EUR 1.1978-1.1943; JPY 108.83-108.56; AUD 0.7739-0.7706; NZD 0.7145-0.7122.

- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.1% at $1,779/oz; Crude Oil -0.3% at $63.02/brl; Copper +1.0% at $4.19/lb.