Equities rise after the gains on Wall St. aussie bond yields drop after softer data

Asia Market Update: Equities rise after the gains on Wall St.; Aussie bond yields drop after softer data [jobs, inflation expectations].

General trend

- AUD rebounded.

- Standard Chartered rose after reporting financial results; Cisco Systems also gained.

- China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly news conferences on Thurs.

- Indonesia to announce rate decision.

- US PPI data due later today.

- RBA Gov Lowe to again testify on Fri.

Headlines/economic data

Australia/New Zealand

-(AU) ASX 200 opens flat at 7,362.

-(AU) AUSTRALIA JAN EMPLOYMENT CHANGE: -11.5K V +20.0KE; UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 3.7% V 3.5%E [highest unemployment rate since May].

- (AU) Australia Feb Consumer Inflation Expectation Survey: 5.1% v 5.6% prior.

-Yancoal Australia [YAL.AU]: Comments on New South Wales Coal Reservation Policy; Coal sold under this Policy is subject to a price cap of A$125/tonne delivered for 5,500 kcal/kg products, energy-adjusted.

- (AU) Australian Treasurer Chalmers: expects unemployment to rise [comments after Jan jobs data]; states having full confidence in RBA Governor Lowe.

-(AU) ANZ raises terminal RBA rate forecast to 4.10% (prior 3.85%).

-(AU) Australia Dec Household Spending M/M: -6.9% v +1.9% prior; Y/Y: 5.2% v 3.2% prior.

-(NZ) Kiwibank: RBNZ should pause rate hikes, cites 'emergency' [cyclone]; still expects the RBNZ to raise rates at the Feb meeting [Feb 22nd].

-(NZ) New Zealand PM Hipkins: Infrastructure outages could last for some time [comments on impact of Cyclone Gabrielle].

-(NZ) New Zealand sells total NZ$400M v NZ$400M indicated in 2028, 2033 and 2037 bonds.

China/Hong Kong

-Hang Seng opens 0.7% at 20,947.

-Shanghai Composite flat 3,281.

- (CN) China Jan New Home Prices M/M: 0.0% v -0.3% prior; Y/Y: -1.5% v -1.5% prior.

-(CN) China Fin Min Liu Kun: 2023 fiscal revenue growth rate will not be 'too high' - Chinese press.

-(CN) China Finance Ministry to extend tariff waivers on some US goods until Sept 15th – press.

-(CN) China PBoC: To push for more bank lending to private sector.

-(CN) China NDRC: Will support improvement in spending on various areas [including housing and new energy vehicles].

- (CN) China President Xi: To promote high-quality regional economic development.

-(TW) US State Dept: US hopes that China will not use planned Congressional delegation visit to Taiwan as a pretext for military action.

-(CN) China 2023 Spring Festival period number of trips at 1.6B +50.5% y/y - Chinese tv.

-(CN) China Jan Client FX Net Settlement (CNY): 16.9B v 33.8B prior.

-(CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY487B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY203B prior; Net injects CNY34.0B.

-(CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.8519 v 6.8183 prior.

Japan

-Nikkei 225 opens +0.6% at 27,654.

-(JP) Japan MOF sells ¥2.5T v ¥2.5T indicated in 0.200% 5-Year JGB; Avg Yield: 0.2160% v 0.3930% prior, bid-to-cover: 3.98x v 3.70x prior.

-(JP) Japan Jan Trade Balance: -¥3.5T v -¥3.796Te; Adj Trade Balance: -¥1.82T v -¥2.40Te.

-(JP) Japan Dec Core Machine Orders M/M: 1.6% v 2.8%e; Y/Y: -6.6% v -6.1%e.

-(JP) Japan FSA regulator said to step up monitoring of 'mini' insurers - Nikkei.

Korea

-Kospi opens +0.7% at 2,444.

Other Asia

- (IN) India cuts windfall tax on exports of aviation turbine fuel to INR1.5/liter (prior INR6); effective Feb 16th.

-Waskita Karya [WSKT.ID]: Said to seek to delay paying local bond [relates to $151M bond].

North America

-*(US) JAN ADVANCE RETAIL SALES M/M: 3.0% V 2.0%E; RETAIL SALES (EX-AUTO) M/M: 2.3% V 0.9%E.

-(US) Reportedly White House considers nominating Chicago Fed Pres Austan Goolsbee as new Fed Vice Chair to replace Brainard as she becomes White House economic advisor – press.

-(US) TREASURY $15B 20-YEAR BOND AUCTION DRAWS 3.977% v 3.935% prior, BID-TO-COVER 2.54 v 2.68 PRIOR AND 2.66 OVER LAST 8 REOPENINGS.

-(US) Biden to speak on balloon and unidentified objects; Thursday EST - financial press.

Europe

-(EU) ECB chief Lagarde: High inflation continues to have a large impact, committed to bring inflation back to 2% target.

Levels as of 00:20 ET

- Nikkei 225, +0.8%, ASX 200 +0.8% , Hang Seng +2.1%; Shanghai Composite +0.8% ; Kospi +1.8%.

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

- EUR 1.0715-1.0683 ; JPY 134.18-133.63 ; AUD 0.6924-0.6868 ;NZD 0.6310-0.6255.

- Gold +0.1% at $1,847/oz; Crude Oil +0.7% at $79.15/brl; Copper +0.5% at $4.0445/lb.