Equity markets rise amid quiet session

General trend

- Australia bond yields continue to push lower, growth concerns and RBA expectations in focus.

- RBA Gov Lowe to speak later today [11:30 AM GMT].

- NY Copper FUTs rise after recent losses; Shanghai traded metals remain under pressure.

- China Legislature has approved revision of the antitrust bill, changes to take effect Aug 1st - Xinhua.

- SoftBank Group held shareholders meeting.

- US equity FUTs rebounded.

- BOJ’s Amamiya to speak later today.

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened flat.

- (AU) Australia PM Albanese calls on China to remove trade sanctions; China said to have trade sanctions related to A$20B worth of Australian exports - Australian press.

- (AU) AEMO: Formally ending the market suspension of national energy market at 00:30ET.

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened +0.2%.

- (JP) Japan May national CPI Y/Y: 2.5% V 2.5%E; CPI Ex-fresh food (CORE) Y/Y: 2.1% V 2.1%E.

- Softbank [9984.JP] Exec Son: Over the long term, share price is increasing; Vision fund has 475 portfolio companies as of early May; Maybe 1 or 2 companies in portfolio could exceed Alibaba.

- (JP) Japan May PPI Services Y/Y: 1.8% v 1.7%e.

- (JP) Expected that Japan ruling parties will maintain a majority in the upcoming elections [Sun, Jul 10th] - Press.

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) offers to buy 5-10 year JGBs at fixed rate of 25bps; Opens window to buy unlimited amount of 10-year JGBs at 0.25% [as expected].

- (JP) Japan Dep Chief Cabinet Sec Kihara: Must pay due caution to economic risk of increasing prices.

- JP) Said that the Japan Govt has revised a document to show support for Hybrid Vehicles is 'on par' with support for electric vehicles - Press.

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.6%.

- (KR) South Korea Vice Fin Min: Expects trade deficit to widen in Jun vs May; exports slowed in Jun on temporary factors; tax on oil products to be lowered from Jul 1st.

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.8%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.7000 v 6.7079 prior.

- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY60B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY10B prior; Net inject CNY50B v Net CNY0B prior.

North America

- (US) Texas Power Grid Operator: Power usage has risen to a record high; there is enough supply to meet demand.

- (US) Sec of State Blinken to meet with Germany Vice Chancellor Habeck and with France Foreign Min Colonna on Friday (June 24th).

- (MX) Mexico Central Bank (Banxico) Gov Rodriguez: Recession is not in Central Bank main scenario.

Europe

- (UK) Jun GfK Consumer Confidence: -41 v -40e (Lowest since 1974, when records began).

Levels as of 01:20 ET

- Nikkei 225, +1.3%, ASX 200 +0.5% , Hang Seng +1.7%; Shanghai Composite +0.6% ; Kospi +2.1%.

- Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.7%; Nasdaq100 +0.9%, Dax +0.8%; FTSE100 +0.7%.

- EUR 1.0543-1.0512 ; JPY 135.22-134.55 ; AUD 0.6916-0.6885 ;NZD 0.6304-0.6270.

- Gold -0.2% at $1,826/oz; Crude Oil +0.5% at $104.78/brl; Copper +1.3% at $3.7885/lb.