Equities generally rise after gains on Wall Street, China inflation data is due on Thurs

General trend

- USD index declines.

- Yuan trades at strongest level since May 2018.

- AUD extends gain; Australian bond yields pared rise.

- US equity FUTs have remained modestly higher in Asia.

- Nikkei 225 has extended gains.

- Hang Seng has pared the opening rise; Kaisa Group was halted amid default concerns; Weibo declined in HK debut.

- Shanghai Composite extended gains during the morning session; Consumer firms rise ahead of inflation data; Property index lags after prior gains.

- S&P ASX 200 has extended gains; Consumer Discretionary and Resources indices outperform.

- RBA Gov Lowe is due to speak on Thurs at 10:05 PM GMT [Payments: the Future? – to Payments Summit 2021 – Online].

- Companies due to report during the NY morning include Brown-Forman, Campbell Soup, CooTek, Thor Industries, United Natural Foods, Vera Bradley

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened +0.6%.

- (AU) Australia Treasurer Frydenberg to announces reform to the "buy now, pay later", crypto and digital wallets business later today (follows RBA study launched in late summer).

- CBA.AU Subsidiary, Avanteos Investments, pleads guilty to 18 criminal charges for charging deceased superannuation members.

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened +1.2%.

- (JP) JAPAN Q3 FINAL GDP Q/Q: -0.9% V -0.8%E; GDP ANNUALIZED Q/Q: -3.6% V -3.1%E.

- (JP) According to a former Bank of Japan (BOJ) official, the BOJ is likely to scale down longer COVID aid (narrow the scope) but keep this more limited version in place for longer term - Japan press.

- (JP) Japan Govt said to be considering tying tax incentives to wage increases, tax breaks for gas companies hit by reregulation - Press.

- (JP) Japan Oct Current Account: ¥1.18T v ¥1.03Te; Adj Current Account: ¥1.03B v ¥999.2Be; Trade Balance (BoP): ¥166.7B v ¥128.8Be.

- (JP) Japan PM Kishida: Capital gains tax revision is one option for distribution - speaking to parliament.

- (JP) Japan Nov Eco Watchers Current Survey: 56.3 v 57.4e (highest since Nov 2013); Outlook Survey: 53.4 v 57.7e.

- (JP) Japan Nov Bank Lending Y/Y: 0.6% v 0.9% prior; Bank Lending (ex-trusts) Y/Y: 0.5% v 0.8% prior.

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Official Amamiya: Watching impact of virus infection closely; Unclear how coronavirus variant will impact domestic and overseas economies; In light of Japan's price situation, you can see the BOJ for now has no need to modify its massive monetary stimulus program.

Korea

- Kospi opened +1.0%.

- (KR) South Korea PM: South Korea to report >7.0K coronavirus cases (record high).

- (KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: Housing prices have markedly stabilized on the back of housing supply measures.

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.4%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.6%.

- 9898.HK Hong Kong IPO opens -6.1% at HK$256.20/shr v pricing of HK$272.80/shr.

- (CN) China companies' IPOs in US to slow in short term, due to SEC rules - China Economic Daily.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.3677 v 6.3738 prior.

- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY10B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B prior; Net CNY0B v Net drain CNY90B prior.

- (CN) China MoF sells 2-year and 5-year bonds; Sells 2-year bond, avg yield 2.4576%; bid to cover 3.70x; Sells 5-year bond; avg yield 2.67%; bid to cover 3.33x.

- (CN) China 2022 local government bond supply might remain 'high' amid spending to support growth [in line] - Chinese press.

- (CN) Fitch: Sees mainland China 2022 GDP to slow to 4.8%, from 8.0% in 2021.

Other

- (TW) Taiwan Nov Trade Balance: $5.7B v $5.4Be; Exports Y/Y: 30.2% v 22.8%e (record high, yesterday after the close).

- (SG) Singapore Central Bank (MAS) Economist Survey: Raises 2021 GDP to 6.9% (prior 6.6%); Raises 2021 core CPI outlook 0.9% (prior 0.7%).

North America

- STT Blackrock to pull most of its $2.0T ETF assets in US from State Street and move them to Citigroup, JPMorgan, Bank of New York, to reduce its reliance on State Street’s custody services.

- (US) Commerce Sec Raimondo: US and UK have not yet agreed to begin formal talks on steel trade.

- (US) Senate Banking Panel to hold hearing on Stable Coins on Dec 14th.

- AAPL Reportedly has told suppliers to accelerate iPhone production in Nov-Jan period; Supply chain woes will leave Apple about 15M units short of its 230M iPhone production plan set at the start of 2021 – Nikkei.

- (US) House of Representatives passes bill to make passing debt limit bill quicker; the final vote was 222 to 212.

Europe

- (UK) Govt considering a work from home plan (due to Omicron variant) for Christmas and New Years and any economic impact that may have - UK press.

- NESN.CH Nestle cuts stake in L’Oreal to 20.1% at €400/shr; Initiates new CHF20B share buyback.

Levels as of 00:15ET

- Hang Seng -0.2%; Shanghai Composite +0.8%; Kospi +0.3%; Nikkei225 +1.3%; ASX 200 +1.4%.

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

- EUR 1.1296-1.1264; JPY 113.62-113.36; AUD 0.7143-0.7115; NZD 0.6801-0.6769.

- Commodity Futures: Gold +0.3% at $1,790/oz; Crude Oil -0.3% at $71.81/brl; Copper -0.1% at $4.34/lb.