NZ inflation expectations and RBA’s Lowe also in focus

Asia Market Update: Cautious equity trading session seen in Asia; US Jan CPI data due later on Thurs; NZ inflation expectations and RBA’s Lowe also in focus.

General trend

- RBI unexpectedly left the reverse repo rate unchanged, noted the rise in the effective reverse repo rate.

- RBNZ Survey of Inflation Expectations due on Fri [delayed from Feb 9th].

- RBA conducted the last bond purchases under its QE program.

- RBA Gov Lowe is due to appear before the Australia House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics [Feb 11, 10:30 PM GMT].

- South Korea Bank Lending to Households slowed again.

- Equity markets are generally off of the highs.

- US equity FUTs erased gains.

- Hang Seng has also declined despite the higher open [TECH index reversed gain; Mainland Properties index rises].

- Shanghai Composite ended morning trading slightly lower [Property index rises >1%].

- Nikkei 225 is slightly higher [opened up by 0.9%]; Honda, Sumco and Renesas rise following earnings reports.

- Japanese cos. due to report earnings include Tokyo Electron, Yamaha Motor, Mazda, Isuzu, Japan Display, Asics, Sapporo, Mitsubishi Estate, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan, ENEOS.

- Japan markets are closed tomorrow.

- S&P ASX 200 has pared gain [Financial and Resources indices rise].

- Western Digital and Kioxia commented on chip contamination issue; Micron rose in after hours trading.

- Taiwan Semi is expected to report Jan sales later today.

- China’s Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM) sometimes holds weekly news conferences on Thurs.

- Companies due to report during the NY morning include Blue Apron, Brookfield Asset Management, Peabody Energy, CyberArk Software, Diebold, Datadog, Duke Energy, Canada Goose, Group 1 Automotive, Global Payments, Huntington Ingalls, Interpublic, Kellogg, Coca-Cola, Lincoln Electric, Laboratory Corp, Moody’s, Martin Marietta Materials, PBF Energy, PG&E, PepsiCo, Philip Morris, Sonoco Products, Shutterstock, Tapestry, TELUS, Twitter, Watsco, Zebra Technologies.

Headlines/Economic data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened -0.1%.

- (AU) AUSTRALIA FEB CONSUMER INFLATION EXPECTATION: 4.6% V 4.4% PRIOR.

- NAB.AU Reports Q1 (A$) cash earnings 1.80B v 1.65B y/y.

- AGL.AU Reports H1 (A$) underlying Net 194M v 317M y/y; underlying EBITDA 723M v 926M y/y; Rev 5.2B v 5.4B y/y.

- DOW.AU Reports H1 (A$) underlying Net 87.6M v 95.7M y/y; underlying EBITA 181.6M v 221.0M y/y; Rev 5.97B v 5.8B y/y.

- (AU) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Offers to buy A$1.60B in Govt bonds v A$1.60B prior (final operation, program ends today).

Japan

- Nikkei 225 opened +0.9%.

- 6502.JP Kioxia (Chip Unit): Sees no impact on 2D NAND Chips from Plant contamination in Jan; Issue will impact 3D flash Memory.

- (JP) Japan Chief Cabinet Sec Matsuno: Will continue to watch and check effects of gasoline price measures.

- 9984.JP Arm CFO: In order to move forward with IPO, need to audit Arm China's books, which there is no access to, due to an ongoing dispute with Allen Wu, the CEO of the JV - UK press.

- (JP) Japan Jan PPI (CGPI) M/M: 0.6% v 0.4%e; Y/Y: 8.6% v 8.2%e (11th consecutive increase).

- (JP) Japan Investors Net Buying of Foreign Bonds: +¥72.9B v -¥555.2B prior; Foreign Net Buying of Japan Stocks: -¥234.4B v -¥120.9B prior.

- (JP) Japan Fin Min Suzuki: G20 to talk about spread of covid, will also talk about crypto and other risks to financial stability.

- 7203.JP Have 3 plants in Ontario, Canada who are not expected to produce vehicles for the rest of the week due to trucking protests.

- Note: Japan markets will be closed tomorrow for a holiday.

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.7%.

- (KR) South Korea Fin Min Hong: uncertainty on economy, inflation and markets all rising, to focus on stabilizing consumer inflation this month.

- (KR) South Korea President Moon: A US President Biden and North Korea leader Kim summit is only a matter of time; Open to virtual inter-Korea summit - Yonhap.

- (KR) South Korea Jan Total Bank Lending to Households (KRW): 1,060.2T v 1,060.7T prior (2nd consecutive decline).

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +0.9%; Shanghai Composite opened +0.1%.

- 3333.HK CEO Xia Haijun sold bonds with a face value of $128M in late July and early August - press.

- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Sells CNY20B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY20B prior; Net drain CNY180B v Net drain CNY180B prior.

- (US) United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC): Biden administration said to be looking at starting a new China tariff probe, if current talks fail to get China buying US goods as they promised – press.

- (HK) Hong Kong has reported its first coronavirus related death in 5-months – Press.

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.3599 v 6.3653 prior.

- (CN) Shanghai Sec News: Certain big insurance companies have been purchasing stock after the lunar new year and expect the market correction to be near an end.

- (CN) China bad debt managers said to have made moves to support distressed developers - Press.

Other

- 2317.TW Guides Q1 Rev flat y/y; Expects major improvement in component shortages during Q1.

North America

- DIS Reports Q1 $1.06 v $0.57e, Rev $21.8B v $21.2Be; Disney+ paid subscribers: 129.8M v 118.1M q/q v 127Me.

- WDC Discloses contamination has occurred and is affecting production operations at Yokkaichi and Kitakami JV flash fabrication facilities, current assessment of the impact is a reduction of its flash availability of at least 6.5 exabytes.

- (US) Commerce Sec Raimondo: We will hold China to account on its purchase pledges; China is not playing by the rules and is unfairly subsidizing firms.

- (CA) Canada PM Trudeau: Blockades in Ottawa and Winsor threaten the economy and must stop.

Europe

- (EU) EU draft outlook: Sees 2022 EU CPI 3.5%, 2023 CPI 1.7%; 2022 GDP 4%; 2023 GDP 2.7% - press.

- (UK) Jan RICS House Price Balance: 74% v 69%e.

Levels as of 00:15ET

- Hang Seng -0.3%; Shanghai Composite -0.2%; Kospi +0.1%; Nikkei225 +0.3%; ASX 200 +0.3%.

- Equity Futures: S&P500 -0.2%; Nasdaq100 -0.3%, Dax -0.4%; FTSE100 -0.0%.

- EUR 1.1432-1.1413; JPY 115.65-115.49; AUD 0.7182-0.7161; NZD 0.6690-0.6675.

- Commodity Futures: Gold -0.1% at $1,834/oz; Crude Oil +0.0% at $89.70/brl; Copper -0.5% at $4.61/lb.