Biden indicates he will not immediately remove China trade tariffs

Asia Market Update: Asia trades mixed after prior gains; Biden indicates he will not immediately remove China trade tariffs.

General Trend

- TECH index weighs on Hang Seng, some focused on Xiaomi’s capital raise/trading halt; BYD drops on share issuance plan; Finance index rises

- Shanghai Composite ended the morning session roughly flat; Property shares rose, Consumer names lagged

- Topix Marine Transportation, Securities, Insurance, Real Estate and Banks indices are among the gainers; automakers also rise; Retail and Information/Communication indices lag

- Fast Retailing is due to report Nov sales after the market close

- Kospi supported by rise in chipmakers; Micron raised guidance

- Financials decline in Australia, Resources firms rise amid higher iron ore prices

- Australia Q3 GDP beat ests amid rise in household spending

- RBA Gov: GDP to be solidly positive in Q3 and Q4; has open mind on extending QE bond buying

- RBNZ Gov Orr to give speech at 01:30EST (19:30 local time)

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened +0.5%

- (AU) AUSTRALIA Q3 GDP Q/Q: +3.3% V 2.5%E; Y/Y: -3.8% V -4.4%E

- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Gov Lowe: Wage and price pressures likely to remain subdued; GDP to be solidly positive in Q3 and Q4; have an open mind to buy debt beyond A$100B - speaking to economic committee

- (NZ) New Zealand Q3 Terms of Trade Q/Q: -4.7% v -3.8%e

- (AU) Australia Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) Quarterly Statement: policy responses to the pandemic have resulted in a very low rate of business insolvencies during 2020, despite difficult trading conditions

- (AU) Russia extends food import ban from Australia for the 5th time to Dec 2021

- (NZ) RBNZ buys NZ$310M v NZ$325M prior in government bonds as part of QE v NZ$310M sought

- (AU) Australia sells A$2.0B v A$2.0B indicated in 1.00% Nov 2031 bonds, avg yield 1.0618%, bid to cover 2.7x

- (AU) Australia Treasurer Frydenberg: Australia economy is coming back, technically recession is over, economic recovery isn't ; Q3 GDP is a step forward in economic recovery

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened +0.4%

- 7203.JP Union: Will not seek pay increase for first time in 8 years - Press

- (JP) Japan not planning to require COVID vaccine for Tokyo Olympics – Nikkei

- (JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: Govt will not try to fill all of ¥34T output gap; Will try to promote capex

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Dep Gov Amamiya: Will not hesitate to add easing if needed; Carefully watching impacts of coronavirus

- 9984.JP Said to wind down options trading due to backlash from investors - Press

- 8515.JP Prices ¥15B in 1.0% 1.5-year bonds

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.4%

- 005930.KR Might discontinue the Galaxy Note in 2021, expected to focus on the Galaxy S - financial press

- (KR) SOUTH KOREA NOV CPI M/M: -0.1% V -0.1%E; Y/Y: 0.6% V 0.7%E

- 005930.KR Announces annual management reshuffle: 3 CEOs Kim Ki-nam, Koh Dong-jin and Kim Hyun-suk to keep positions

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.4%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%

- (CN) China President Xi: Said to urge China to increase intellectual property (IP) rights protection as it is pertinent to national security interests – Xiinhua

- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v Injects CNY20B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net Drain CNY110B v Net drain CNY50B prior

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.5611 v 6.5921 prior

- (CN) China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) Vice chairman Qingmin: More than 340 companies have been listed on China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges since the beginning of this year

North America

- WORK Confirms to be acquired by Salesforce in cash-stock deal valued at $27.7B (implies ~$45.51/shr)

- MESO US FDA grants fast track designation for Remestemcel-L for treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome due to COVID

- HPE Reports Q4 $0.37 v $0.34e, Rev $7.21B v $6.88Be; to relocate its HQ from San Jose to Houston, Texas

- (US) President Trump expected to Veto NDAA if it does not dissolve tech shield of Section 230 in Communications Decency Act - press

- (US) President elect Biden NYT Op Ed: Will not 'immediately' remove Phase 1 Tariffs imposed on China by President Trump, will not sign trade deals before investing at home

Europe

- (UK) PM Johnson wins Parliamentary backing for England COVID restrictions

- (EU) Barnier reportedly to update EU27 envoys regarding Brexit talks at 0730 GMT tomorrow - press

- (UK) UK armed forces have been ordered to make ~10 locations ready to be vaccine hubs for first vaccines to be administered Dec 7th - UK press

- (LT) ECB's Kazaks (Latvia): Would not oppose PEPP extension by 12-months, €500B boost to PEPP is not very off the mark; ECB should consider other assets in TLTRO collateral and consider extending TLTRO to 5 year (from current 3)

Levels as of 12:15 ET

- Hang Seng -0.3%; Shanghai Composite +0.0%; Kospi +1.4%; Nikkei225 +0.1%; ASX 200 +0.0%

- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 -0.1%, Dax -0.3%; FTSE100 -0.4%

- EUR 1.2084-1.2061; JPY 104.45-104.22; AUD 0.7389-0.7367; NZD 0.7074-0.7054

- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.3% at $1,813/oz; Crude Oil -0.9% at $44.17/brl; Copper -0.5% at $3.49/lb