Asian equities trade generally lower

Asia Market Update: Asian equities trade generally lower; UST yields extend rise; BOJ decision inline.

General trend

- USD declines vs commodity and European major currencies.

- USD later rebounded after BOJ decision, USD/JPY rose; 2-yr UST yield extended rise.

- WTI crude tested above $85/bbl.

- US equity FUTs decline.

- According to study in Israel, a 4th covid vaccine is not more effective against omicron variant - press.

- Japanese markets pared gains after BOJ decision.

- Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng extended gains during morning trading; Property indices outperform; Country Garden [property developer] rises on debt buyback.

- Agile Group announced partial debt repurchase following credit downgrade.

- Hang Seng later pared rise.

- S&P ASX 200 has reversed gain, Financials decline; Rio Tinto traded slightly lower after production update/guidance.

- BHP is due to issue quarterly production update on Wed [Jan 19th].

- BOJ Gov Kuroda to hold post rate decision press conference at 06:30 GMT.

- Companies due to report during the NY morning include Bank of NY, Goldman Sachs, PNC, Charles Schwab.

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened 0.0%.

- JBH.AU Reports H1 (A$) Net 287.9M v 317.7M y/y; EBIT 420.5M v 462.7M y/y; Rev 4.86B v 4.9B y/y.

- (NZ) New Zealand Dec REINZ House Sales Y/Y: -29.4% v -18.0% prior.

- RIO.AU Reports Q4 Pilbara Iron Ore production 84.1Mt v 86.0Mt y/y; Shipments: 84.1Mt v 88.9Mt y/y; Guides initial FY22 Pilbara Iron Ore shipments 320-335Mt.

- ALD.AU Reports Q4 Lytton refinery margin $11.24/bbl v $5.13 y/y; expected to deliver the highest RCOP EBIT quarterly result for more than four years.

- (AU) Australia ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence: 97.9 v 106.0 prior.

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened +0.4%.

- (JP) BANK OF JAPAN (BOJ) QUARTERLY OUTLOOK FOR ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AND PRICES: Raises current assessment of CPI level (1st adjustment since 2014), revises FY22 and 23 CPI outlook higher (as expected).

- (JP) BANK OF JAPAN (BOJ) LEAVES INTEREST RATE ON EXCESS RESERVES (IOER) UNCHANGED AT -0.10%; AS EXPECTED.

- (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Matsuno: Confirms Tokyo and 9 surrounding prefectures have requested coronavirus measures, North Korea missiles threaten regional peace.

- 7751.JP Said to target FY25 annual dividend of ¥160/share - Japanese press.

- 8411.JP Japan Fin Min Suzuki has asked company to have a more urgent sense of crisis and that system failures do no reoccur.

- (JP) Japan Nov Final Industrial Production M/M: 7.0% v 7.2% prelim; Y/Y: 5.1% v 5.4% prelim.

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.3%.

- (KR) North Korea confirms test fired tactical guided missile Monday - KCNA.

- 030200.KR Partners with Yandex on developing delivery robots - Yonhap.

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.2%; Shanghai Composite opened 0.0%.

- (CN) China Stats Bureau (NDRC): Q4 property sector GDP -2.9% y/y; 2021 Property sector GDP +5.2% y/y.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.3521 v 6.3599 prior.

- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY100B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY100B prior; Net inject CNY90B v CNY90B prior.

- 678.HK May move forward with provisional liquidation on Jan 18th; Independent non exec directors resigned; court rejected application that would require State M-V to satisfy the utilisation request and permit drawdown under the State M-V Backstop Facility.

- (CN) Analysts see China Loan Prime Rate (LPR) expected to be cut after yesterday's rate cuts - China Securities.

- (HK) Aquila Acquisition Corp, backed by CMB International, files for Hong Kong IPO (1st SPAC listing).

- 600000.CN Planning to use part of its bond proceeds as property project acquisition loans - press.

- (CN) China State Planner (NDRC): Approved CNY18.5B in fixed asset investments during Dec; Q1 GDP to be in a reasonable range, will “front load” infrastructure investment and urges caution in imposing policies with a contractionary effect.

North America

- TSLA Said to be targeting 2022 deliveries of 1.5-2.0M units v 937K y/y and has opened bidding for EV camera modules - press.

- BNTX Preliminary data shows 4th dose of Comirnaty raises antibodies but doesn't protect against omicron variant - financial press.

- KSS Activist investor Macellum (5% stake) urging company to make changes to business or sell company, thinks there are interested parties - press.

- (US) Certain Congress democrats have backed the request to delay 5G service near airports which is set to be allowed on Weds (Jan 19th).

- (US) CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, UPS Airlines, Atlas Air, JetBlue Airways and FedEx Express send letter warning that 5G deployment could cause catastrophic aviation crisis.

- MRNA CEO: Affirms stance that Moderna expects to share clinical data on Omicron-specific vaccine in development with regulators by Mar 2022 (US morning).

Europe

- SIE.DE Atlantia to acquire Yunex Traffic unit for €950M.

- (UK) Govt considering intervention into power market, where Govt would make payments to energy suppliers when wholesale gas prices rise sharply - press.

Levels as of 00:15ET

- Hang Seng -0.4%; Shanghai Composite +0.6%; Kospi -0.9%; Nikkei225 -0.3%; ASX 200 -0.1%.

- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.5%; Nasdaq100 -0.9%, Dax -0.2%; FTSE100 -0.2%.

- EUR 1.1422-1.1385; JPY 115.06-114.46; AUD 0.7228-0.7179; NZD 0.6812-0.6764.

- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.0% at $1,816/oz; Crude Oil +1.3% at $84.38/brl; Copper -0.4% at $4.42/lb.