Mixed Asian equities as markets in holding pattern post-CB meetings last week

Asia market update: Mixed Asian equities as markets in holding pattern post-CB meetings last week and ahead of US Core PCE on Friday; NZ joins US & UK claims of CN hacks; CN state banks sell USD again.

General trend

- Nikkei flat with auto and bank stocks weighing, while the Kospi up strongly in early trading with SK Hynix +5% after Micron extends gains +6%. Japanese chipmakers more muted with Tokyo Electron +1.3%, Renesas +1.5%, Advantest flat.

- Australian Mar consumer confidence fell m/m, although this week’s weekly survey of consumers saw a rise in confidence.

- New Zealand joined the US and UK’s claims of China-backed cyber espionage, saying that NZ Parliament was hacked in 2021 by China-linked actors.

- China state banks said to again sell USD – US financial press.

- Hong Kong Feb home prices fell for the 10th month, despite last month’s removal of barriers such as stamp duty for home purchases.

- US equity FUTs up slightly during Asian trading.

Looking ahead (Asian time zone)

- Tue Mar 26th (Tue eve DE Consumer Confidence).

- Wed Mar 27th AU Feb CPI.

- Thu Mar 28th JP BOJ Mar meeting SOMP, AU Retail Sales, (Thu night US Final Q4 GDP).

- Fri May 29th JP Feb Industrial Production & Retail Sales (Fri night US Feb Core PCE & Fed’s Powell speech).

Holidays in Asia this week

- Thu Mar 28th Malaysia, Philippines

- Fri Mar 29th (Good Friday) Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore.

Headlines/economic data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opens -0.1% at 7,807.

- Australia Mar Westpac Consumer Confidence: 84.4 v 86.0 prior.

- Australia ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence Index: 83.1 v 81.7 prior.

- Australia debt agency (AOFM) announces pricing of the syndicated tap of the August 2035 TIB; real yield to maturity of 1.64%; issue size A$1.3B.

- APRA (Australia financial regulator): APRA is planning to launch first financial system stress test in 2025 - Financial press.

- New Zealand Defense Min Collins: China linked actor targeted parliamentary entities in a cyber attack.

- Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ): Have issued guidance on managing climate-related risks.

- Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ): Raised FX intervention capacity in Feb to NZ$20.0B.

- RBNZ: New Zealand new mortgage commitments +28% y/y.

- New Zealand delays release of Filled Jobs report to Apr 3rd.

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opens +0.5% at 16,548.

- Shanghai Composite opens flat at 3,026.

- Hong Kong Feb home prices -1.7% m/m (10th month of declines).

- China state banks said to again sell USD – US financial press.

- (UK) PM Sunak: Taking measures to protect ourselves from China; They are becoming increasingly assertive.

- China Premier Li: Economy recovery has been improving since this year.

- China's NDRC Head Han Zheng: Important to promote economic globalisation, smooth global industrial and supply chains - Chinese press.

- China PBOC Gov Pan: See positive signals in the property market; China has ample policy room for economy.

- Reportedly US govt to accuse Chinese hackers of targeting US companies – CNN.

- China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.0943 v 7.0996 prior.

- China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY150B in 7-day reverse repos; Net injects CNY145B v injects CNY40B prior.

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opens -0.2% at 40,345.

- Japan Feb PPI Services Y/Y: 2.1% v 2.1%e.

- Japan Fin Min Suzuki; Reiterates important that FX moves stably, rapid moves are undesirable.

- Japan SEAJ Feb Chip-Making Equipment Billings Y/Y: +7.8% v +5.2% prior [overnight update].

- Japan Feb Nationwide Dept Sales Y/Y: 14.0% v 7.1% prior [overnight update].

South Korea

- Kospi opens +0.7% at 2,756.

- South Korea Mar Consumer Confidence: 100.7 v 101.9 prior.

- South Korea Feb Retail Sales Y/Y: 13.7% v 8.2% prior.

- South Korea Pres Yoon: Promises 'significant' R&D expansion in FY25 budget - South Korea press.

- South Korea to consider tax cuts for companies raising dividends - South Korean press.

- LG Electronics (066570.KR) Announces shareholder return plan for 2024-26; To raise dividend payout ratio to at least 25%.

Other Asia

- Malaysia PM Anwar: Service tax rate increase expected to add 0.2% to the inflation print - financial press.

- Singapore Feb Industrial Production M/M: 14.2% v 2.1%e; Y/Y: 3.8% v 0.5%e.

- Taiwan 1-year interest rate swap rises to highest since 2014.

- Taiwan Central Bank: Power rate hikes to raise CPI by 0.27ppt - comments to lawmakers.

North America

- (US) Former Pres Trump allowed to pay a reduced bond as he appeals the $454M fine in NY; Trump bond reduced to $175M - press.

- (US) Fed's Cook (voter): Cutting too soon could risk inflation becoming entrenched and cutting too late could unnecessarily harm the economy.

- (US) Feb new home sales: 662K V 675KE.

- Treasury sells $66b 2-year note auction draws 4.595% V 4.691% prior; bid-to-cover ratio: 2.62 V 2.49 prior and 2.69 over the last 12.

- (US) Fed's Goolsbee (non-voter for 2024): We're in a bit of a murky period with inflation; Doesn't feel like story fundamentally changed.

- (US) Fed’s Bostic (dove, voter): We're still in a pandemic economy; repeats expects just one rate cut this year.

- (US) Mar Dallas Fed Manufacturing activity: -14.4 V -11.5E; New orders: -11.8 v 5.2 prior.

Europe

- (IE) Ireland Mar Consumer Confidence: 69.5 v 70.2 prior.

- Russian govt tells oil companies to cut output to 9M bpd by end of June.

- (EU) Apple, Alphabet, Meta probed by EU Commission under new Digital Markets Act (DMA); EU says it is the 1st investigation under DMA and the probes come with risk of fines of up to 10% of global revenue and to conclude within 12 months.

- (IL) Israel PM Netanyahu threatens to cancel planned delegation to Washington if the US does not veto a UN Security Council ceasefire proposal.

- (DE) German Economic Institutes updated forecast cuts 2024 GDP growth to 0.1%, sees 2025 GDP growth at 1.4% - Handelsblatt.

Levels as of 00:20 ET

- Nikkei 225 -0.1%, ASX 200 -0.4%, Hang Seng +0.2%; Shanghai Composite -0.5%; Kospi +1.0%.

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

- EUR 1.0833-1.0846; JPY 151.22-151.45; AUD 0.6532-0.6555; NZD 0.5996-0.6014.

- Gold -0.2% at $2,171/oz; Crude Oil +0.1% at $82.02/brl; Copper -0.4% at $3.9947lb.