Nikkei lags after recent Yen strength and comments from Tokyo’s Gov

Asia Market Update: Asian indices opened mixed, Kospi outperforms amid apparent reversal by N. Korea; Nikkei lags after recent Yen strength and comments from Tokyo’s Gov; NZD declined as RBNZ commented on currency strength.

General Trend:

- Tech companies trade generally higher in Hong Kong amid the Nasdaq’s recent strength, Tencent hits record high; Shanghai IT index also outperforms

- Decliners in Japan include Transports, Property firms and Banks

- Resource and Consumer Discretionary names are among the gainers in Australia, decliners include Energy and Financial sectors

- Australia’s Woolworths reinstated certain product limits in Victoria [amid recent rise in coronavirus cases in the Australian state]

- Samsung rises over 3% amid general strength in SK chip sector [trading vol above avg]

- Hyundai Rotem [manufacturer of railway vehicles] rises over 13% on M&A speculation

- ONGC (Indian oil co.) suspends drilling at certain rigs on coronavirus concerns

- Bank of Thailand to hold monetary policy decision later today (no changes expected)

- Tokyo Gov issues warning related to coronavirus clusters in workplaces, Nikkei moved lower after the comments

- Japan's MOF is due to sell 20-year bonds on June 25th (Thursday)

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened flat

- Woolworths [WOW.AU]: In Victoria, has reinstated a purchase limit of two items on various items (including toilet paper, hand sanitiser, paper towel, flour, sugar, pasta, mince, UHT milk, eggs and rice); move is in response to significantly elevated demand seen over the past 24 hours in certain parts of Melbourne

- (AU) Australia Treasurer Frydenberg said a support package for the arts will be announced in the near term; now sees Australia unemployment rate rising to ~8.0% [forecast 10% in early May] - Australia press

- (AU) Australia May Skilled Vacancies M/M: -8.7% v -16.4% prior

- (AU) Australia Victoria state reports 20 additional coronavirus cases v 17 prior; 1 additional death reported [First COVID-19 related death in Australia in 1 month]

- (NZ) NEW ZEALAND CENTRAL BANK (RBNZ) LEAVES OFFICIAL CASH RATE (OCR) UNCHANGED AT 0.25%; AS EXPECTED; Maintains bond purchases at NZ$60B (as expected); Rising NZ$ is putting pressure on exports

- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) buys NZ$270M v NZ$410M prior in government bonds as part of QE v NZ$270M sought

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.5%, Shanghai Composite +0.2%

- (US) US Senate Judiciary Committee said to consider holding China accountable for losses related to COVID-19; Senator Graham (R-SC) said to reiterate his support for allowing US citizens to sue China in relation to coronavirus - press

- (CN) China PBoC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY180B in 7-day repos v Injects combined CNY200B in 7-day and 14-day reverse repos prior; Net inject CNY180B v Net injection CNY200B prior

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 7.0555 v 7.0671 prior

- (CN) China Ministry of Finance (MOF): To extend waiver on port construction fees for import and export cargos until end of 2020

- (CN) Reportedly China and India have reached agreement to de-escalate border tensions - press

- (IN) India imposes anti-dumping tariffs on certain China steel imports

- (HK) Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold HK$1.14B as HKD hit strong end of trading band versus USD

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened flat

- (JP) Tokyo, Japan Gov Koike: Coronavirus case number will be large today, workplace coronavirus clusters are a problem

- (JP) Tokyo reports 55 additional coronavirus cases (Highest since May 5th)

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ Summary of Opinions from June 15-16th policy meeting: Economy has faced downward pressure but appears to have bottomed out; it is desirable to carefully confirm and examine..[policy measures] effects for the time being.

- (JP) Japan May PPI Services Y/Y: 0.8% v 0.8%e

- (JP) Japan Apr Final Leading Index CI: 77.7 v 76.2 prelim; Coincident Index: 80.1 v 81.5 prelim

- (JP) Japan reported to ease event capacity rules related to coronavirus - press

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.7%

- (KR) North Korea leader Kim Jong-un suspends plans for military action against South Korea, the move said to come after North Korea's Central Military Commission took stock of the prevailing situation - Yonhap

- (KR) North Korea reported to remove propaganda loudspeakers near border

Other Asia

- (MY) Malaysia May CPI Y/Y: -2.9% v -2.8%e

- (TH) Thailand May Customs Trade Balance: $2.7B v $2.8Be

North America

- Tyson Foods [TSN]: Spokesperson: Tyson certifies meat shipments to China are free of coronavirus

- T-Mobile [TMUS]: Confirms pricing of 143.4M shares at $103/shr [the shares are being sold by Softbank]

Europe

- Dialog Semi [DLG.DE]: Raises Q2 Rev guidance to $290-305M (prior $260-290M); The increase in the outlook range is due to stronger than expected demand for tablets, notebooks and wearable products

Levels as of 1:20 ET

- Nikkei 225, -0.1%, ASX 200 +0.2% , Hang Seng -0.2%; Shanghai Composite flat ; Kospi +1.5%

- Equity S&P500 Futures: +0.1%; Nasdaq100 +0.3%, Dax +0.2%

- EUR 1.1325-1.1307; JPY 106.63-106.38 ; AUD 0.6963-0.6924;NZD 0.6527-0.6450

- Gold +0.2% at $1,785/oz; Crude Oil -0.3% at $40.25/brl; Copper +0.2% at $2.658/lb