Nikkei lags amid stronger yen

Asia Market Update: Modest equity losses generally seen in Asia; Nikkei lags amid stronger Yen; China data slows more than ests ; UST yields extend declines.

General trend

- Commodity currencies trade lower amid weaker US and CN data, AUD lags; RBA Aug Minutes due on Tuesday (Aug 17th).

- Financials trade generally lower amid drop in 10-yr Treasury yields.

- Nikkei has extended decline amid stronger Yen [Decliners include Exporters and Financials]; Tokyo Electron is due to report earnings.

- Hang Seng has remained lower [TECH index drops over 2%].

- Shanghai Composite outperforms [Property and IT indices rise over 1% during morning session].

- S&P ASX 200 has declined after the flat open [Financials decline; Gold miners rise; Materials index supported by results from Bluescope Steel; Consumer Discretionary index rises following results from JB Hi-Fi].

- BHP is due to report FY21 results on Tuesday (Aug 17th).

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

-ASX 200 opened 0.0%.

- (NZ) RBNZ Shadow Board (NZIER): Calling for tightening at August 18th meeting.

- BSL.AU Reports FY21 (A$) underlying Net 1.17B v 353M y/y; underlying EBIT 1.72B v 0.56B y/y; Rev 12.9B v 11.3B y/y; Announces A$500M share buyback; Special dividend A$0.19/shr.

- BPT.AU Reports FY21 (A$) underlying Net 363.0M v 461.0M y/y; Rev 1.56B v 1.73B y/y.

- (AU) Sydney, Australia expands lockdown to entire NSW for 1 week; Melbourne expected to be extended into Sept (update from Aug 14).

Japan

-Nikkei 225 opened -0.6%.

- (JP) JAPAN Q2 PRELIMINARY GDP Q/Q: 0.3% V 0.1%E; GDP ANNUALIZED Q/Q: 1.3% V 0.5%E.

- (JP) Japan Govt said to be considering extending state of emergency to additional prefectures as soon as this week, after recording 20K new COVID cases in a day - Press.

- (JP) Japan Govt said to be considering extending state of emergency to additional prefectures as soon as this week – Press.

- (JP) Japan Jun Final Industrial Production M/M: 6.5% v 6.2% prelim; Y/Y: 23.0% v 22.6% prelim.

Korea

-Kospi closed for holiday.

- (KR) South Korea records 1.5K new COVID cases (lower on less testing over the weekend).

China/Hong Kong

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

- (CN) CHINA JULY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION Y/Y: 6.4% V 7.9%E (slowest growth since Aug 2020); Industrial Production YTD Y/Y: 14.4% v 14.6%e.

- (CN) CHINA JULY RETAIL SALES Y/Y: 8.5% V 10.9%E; Retail Sales YTD Y/Y: 20.7% v 21.2%e.

- (CN) China Stats Agency (NBS): China to maintain stable economic recovery during H2; Prices expected to increase 'mildly'.

- (CN) CHINA JULY YTD PROPERTY INVESTMENT: 12.7% V 12.9%E.

- (CN) CHINA JULY YTD FIXED URBAN ASSETS Y/Y: 10.3% V 11.3%E.

- (CN) CHINA JULY NEW HOMES PRICES M/M: 0.3% V 0.4% PRIOR; Y/Y: 4.6% V 4.7% PRIOR.

- (CN) CHINA PBOC CONDUCTS CNY600B V CNY700B MATURING (V 100B PRIOR) IN 1-YEAR MEDIUM-TERM LENDING FACILITY (MLF) AT 2.95% V 2.95% PRIOR; Liquidity released in July RRR cut can partially repay MLF.

- (CN) China Sec Journal: PBOC May increase Reverse Repo injections during the week.

- (HK) Macau said to be allowing certain recreational facility to re-open on Aug 18th.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4717 v 6.4799 prior.

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

- (CN) China July railway passengers 1.26T passengers/km, +70.9% y/y; Railway freight, -6.8% y/y.

Other

- (TW) Taiwan said to consider extending tax cuts for day trading - Press.

North America

- (CA) Canada Governor General dissolves parliament, triggering an election for Sept 20th.

- KKR Hyatt confirms to acquire Apple Leisure for $2.7B.

- (US) Fed's Kashkari (dove, non-voter): Want a few more strong jobs reports before taper starts; gal is to let labor market back to at least pre-COVID levels.

- (US) Said that 9 Democrats in the House of Representatives have said no to Speaker Pelosi's procedural compromise.

- BILI Daily active user (DAU) said to now exceed 65M (ahead of Youku, and behind Tencent and Iqiyi) - Chinese press.

Europe

- (UK) Aug Rightmove House Prices M/M: -0.3% v +0.7% prior (first decline this year); Y/Y: 5.6% v 5.7% prior.

- (UK) PM Johnson said to be looking to delay his Cabinet reshuffle until the COP26 climate change summit in November - financial press.

Levels as of 01:15ET

- Hang Seng -0.7%; Shanghai Composite +0.4%; Kospi closed for holiday; Nikkei225 -1.7%; ASX 200 -0.4%.

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

- EUR 1.1801-1.1790; JPY 109.75-109.33; AUD 0.7373-0.7337; NZD 0.7045-0.7023.

- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.0% at $1,778/oz; Crude Oil -1.1% at $67.44/brl; Copper -0.6% at $4.33/lb.