Equities trade mixed after similar US session

Asia Market Update: Equities trade mixed after similar US session, Chinese property shares outperform amid PBOC comments.

General trend

- Evergrande’s near-term debt payments remain a focal point.

- USD/JPY extends rise amid higher UST yields; AU and NZ bond yields rise.

- BTC dropped at 40-year JGB auction, the yield also rose.

- WTI Crude continues to rise, Brent trades above $80/bbl.

- Hang Seng has extended gain [Property developers Sunac and Evergrande rise in early trading].

- Shanghai Property index rose by over 4% during the morning session; Banks index also outperformed.

- US equity FUTs pared declines.

- Nikkei has moved off of the session lows and remained above 30K.

- S&P ASX 200 declines after prior rise [Resources index declines with the drop in Iron Ore FUTs; Analysts comment on the impact of power cuts in China, CN property sector also remains in focus].

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

-ASX 200 opened -0.0%.

- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): Excess cash at exchange settlement (ES) accounts at A$369.3B (record high).

- (AU) Australia says it will start an A$2.0B loan facility for critical minerals.

Japan

-Nikkei 225 opened -0.3%.

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) July Meeting Minutes (two decisions ago): Japan's economy had picked up as a trend, although it remained in a severe situation due to the impact of COVID.

- (JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: Will continue to have eateries keep shorter hours, will ease curbs in about a month in stages.

- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Does not believe pent up demand will emerge too easily; Will take time for demand to return after state of emergency ends.

- JGB (JP) Japan MoF sells ¥600B v ¥600B indicated in 0.70% 40-year JGBs, Yield at lowest accepted price 0.7700% v 0.7350% prior, bid to cover: 2.53x v 2.72x prior (btc multi year low).

Korea

-Kospi opened 0.0%.

- (KR) South Korea Sept Consumer Confidence: 103.8 v 102.5 prior (1st increase in 2 months).

- (KR) US State Dept: US is prepared to meet with North Korea without any conditions – Yonhap.

- (KR) North Korea fires unidentified projectile into East Sea – Yonhap.

- (KR) Bank of Korea (BOK): To gradually apply ESG elements to all of its foreign currency assets, while it continues to increase allocations in ESG bonds and stocks in the near term.

China/Hong Kong

-Hang Seng opened +0.5%; Shanghai Composite opened -0.1%.

- (CN) China Aug Industrial Profits Y/Y: 10.1% v 16.4% prior (6th consecutive slowdown).

- (CN) China considering curbing coal prices in order to ensure steady electricity supply for factory production - Global Times.

- (CN) Goldman cuts China 2021 GDP outlook to 7.8% (prior 8.2%); Cuts Q3 GDP to 0%.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4608 v 6.4695 prior.

- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): injects CNY100B in 14-day reverse repos v CNY100B prior; Net Inject CNY100B v Net inject CNY100B prior.

- 1918.HK Clarifies Wechat post related to Sunac Shaoxing seeking financial assistant from local government; Sunac Shaoxing is only seeking support to solve the problem relating to the online settlement, the company has never had, nor has any need or willingness to submit a similar report to the government.

- (CN) China State Planner NDRC: Will expand supply of non-basic public services, lower cost, and improve quality; Will expand public services using private businesses.

- (HK) Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Yuen: Banks in Hong Kong have limited exposure to 'stressed' China property developers.

- (CN) China PBOC quarterly monetary policy meeting statement: Reiterates stance that domestic economy recovery remains fragile and 'unbalanced' (yesterday after the close).

North America

- (US) Fed Chair Powell: Fed would act against 'sustained' high inflation; Bottleneck effects were larger and more persistent than expected - Senate testimony.

- (US) Fed's Bostic (FOMC voter, hawk): Not convinced we are facing a lengthy bout with troublesome inflation; Without clear data demonstrating inflation has arrived and is likely to last, we will allow labor markets to run their course.

- (US) Dallas Fed's Kaplan to retire on Oct 8th; Rosengren, Sept 30th; Fed's Kaplan and Rosengren will sell all individual stocks they own by Sept 30th and reinvest in diversified index funds or cash; The move is meant to address ethics concerns.

- F Announces Electric Vehicles Mega Campus in Tennessee and Twin Battery Plants in Kentucky; $11.4B Investment to Create 11,000 Jobs and Power New Lineup of Advanced EVs.

- (US) Procedural vote on debt limit and Govt funding bill, looks like it will not pass, GOP has enough to block.

- JNJ Jury finds not responsible for woman's ovarian cancer tied to talc powder.

Europe

- (FR) France President Macon approval rating +3ppt to 42% - Odoxa poll.

Levels as of 01:00ET

- Hang Seng +1.2%; Shanghai Composite +0.5%; Kospi -1.0%; Nikkei225 -0.3%; ASX 200 -1.3%.

- Equity Futures: S&P500 +0.0%; Nasdaq100 -0.2%, Dax +0.0%; FTSE100 +0.1%.

- EUR 1.1699-1.1685; JPY 111.25-110.93; AUD 0.7307-0.7266; NZD 0.7023-0.6999.

- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.1% at $1,750/oz; Crude Oil +0.9% at $76.09/brl; Copper +0.5% at $4.29/lb.