Asian equities trade mixed after US declines

Asia Market Update: Asian equities trade mixed after US declines, ahead of China Q3 GDP and Sept IP data on Friday; Aussie rises on unemployment rate data, BHP drops after production update

General Trend:

- BHP declines over 2%, reported flat y/y iron ore production in Q1

- Hang Seng outperforms, property names gain after recent policy address by HK leader

- Marine Transportation and Electric Appliance firms gain in Japan, financials decline

- Netflix rises over 9% in afterhours trading post earnings, IBM drops over 5%

- Various cannabis-related companies rise in US afterhours trading, Canada’s amended regulations related to the Cannabis Regulations will come into force on Oct 17, 2019 (Thursday)

- Aussie unemployment rate beats estimates and full-time employment rises as recent rate cuts work way through economy

- Taiwan Semi is expected to issue quarterly earnings later today

- China Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds its weekly press conference on Thursdays (generally comes during early European morning)

- US companies expected to report earnings during Thursday’s NY morning include Honeywell, Morgan Stanley, Philip Morris, PPG and Textron

- RBA Gov Lowe is due to speak on Friday at 7:00 AM AEDT (4 PM EST), to comment at the ‘Governor Talk’ event at the IMF

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened -0.1%

- (AU) AUSTRALIA SEPT EMPLOYMENT CHANGE: +14.7K V +15.0KE; UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 5.2% V 5.3%E

- BHP.AU Reports Q1 Waio iron ore production 69Mt v 69Mt y/y; attributable iron ore production 61.0Mt v 60.5Mte v 61.0Mt y/y

- WPL.AU Reports Q3 production 24.9 MMBOE v 23.1 MMBOE y/y; Rev $1.16B v $1.16B y/y

- STO.AU Reports Q3 (A$) Rev 1.03B v 0.9B y/y; Production 19.8 MMBOE v 15.0M y/y

- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Asst Gov Debelle: Rate cuts aimed at more assured progress to full employment, see 2020 as the low for construction; employment is a little higher - Housing and the Economy – at the CFA Societies Australia Investment Conference

-CBA.AU Notes unknown computer issue is affecting some of its services including BPAY, its online payment platform Netbank and its app; some in-branch and call centre services were also down

-(AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) releases 2019 annual report: To pay Govt A$1.69B dividend in FY20

Japan

-Nikkei 225 opened -0.1%

- (JP) Japan government is expected to lower its overall assessment of the economy in its Oct monthly report, notes impact of sales tax increase and typhoon Hagibis; Expected to - Japanese Press

- 7201.JP According to analysts if a no-deal Brexit happens may have to write down ¥80B in UK Sunderland factory – Nikkei

-(JP) Japan Defense Min Kono planning to run for Liberal Democratic Party leader - local media

- (JP) Japan Sept Tokyo Condominium Sales Y/Y: -30.0% v +21.1% prior

- (JP) Japan foreign ownership rule will exempt asset managers - Nikkei

-(JP) Japan MoF sells ¥1.9T v ¥1.9T prior in 0.1% coupon 5-year JGB: avg yield: -0.2800% v -0.3080% prior, bid to cover: 3.69x v 3.61x prior

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.1%

- 005930.KR May be the producer for Facebook's AR glasses' chip – press

-(KR) South Korea president Moon to meet with economic team after weakening GDP outlook - Yonhap

China/Hong Kong

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

- (HK) Hong Kong Chief Exec Lam: US passing of Hong Kong bill is unjustified and will hurt Hong Kong business as well as US interests in the city

- (CN) US govt to require Chinese missions to notify the State Dept before any meetings with state, local or municipal govts; diplomats do need to receive permission but State will now require notifications – press

-(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan Reference Rate: 7.0789 v 7.0746 prior

-(CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Skips for the 9th consecutive session

-(CN) China Star Board approved 7 new IPOs (largest number since launch in July)

- (CN) China State Council chaired by Premier Li reaffirmed commitment to opening up its markets further and improving the domestic business environment for foreign companies - SCMP

-(CN) China Agriculture Ministry: large hog farm Sept inventory +0.6% m/m; large scale farmers have bottomed out and started to rebound

Other Asia

- (SG) SINGAPORE SEPT NON-OIL DOMESTIC EXPORTS M/M: -3.3% V -5.0%E; Y/Y: -8.1% V -7.2%E; Electronic Exports Y/Y: -24.8% v -23.0%e

-(SG) Singapore PM Lee: Singapore will be lucky to see positive GDP in 2019 - speaking from conference

North America

- (CN) Treasury Sec Mnuchin: there's still work to do in documenting the trade deal with China; very pleased with how it concluded

- (US) Weekly API Oil Inventories: Crude: +10.5M v +4.1M prior

Europe

- (FR) ECB's Villeroy (France): the causes of the Euro area slowdown are 'mainly internal'

- (UK) Bank of England (BOE) Gov Carney: Negative interest rates have not hurt bank profits in Europe; do not see negative rates as part of BOE's tool kit - speaking at Harvard event

- (UK) Opposition Labour Party Leader Corbyn expected to support second referendum on Brexit deal - UK press

Levels as of 1:20 ET

- Nikkei 225, +0.1%, ASX 200 -0.8%, Hang Seng +0.7%; Shanghai Composite -0.1%; Kospi -0.5%

- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.1%; Nasdaq100 flat, Dax -0.1%; FTSE100 flat

- EUR 1.1086-1.1071 ; JPY 108.83-108.64 ; AUD 0.6792-0.6749 ;NZD 0.6302-0.6280

- Gold -0.1% at $1,492/oz; Crude Oil -0.8% at $52.92/brl; Copper -0.1% at $2.584/lb