Stocks trade weaker as US equity FUTs declined; USD rises into month-end

General Trend

- Japan companies expected to report earnings include Komatsu, KDDI, NEC Corp, Yamato Holdings, Ana Holdings and Murata Manufacturing.

- BoJ might release its bond buying plan for Feb later today

- Companies expected to report during the NY morning include Caterpillar, Charter Communications, Colgate-Palmolive, Chevron, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Eli Lilly, LyondellBasell, Phillips 66, Weyerhaeuser

Headlines/Economic Data

Australia/New Zealand

- ASX 200 opened +0.5%

- (AU) Australia Q4 PPI Q/Q: +0.5% v 0.4% prior; Y/Y: -0.1% v -0.4% prior

- (AU) Australia Dec Private Sector Credit M/M: 0.3% v 0.1% prior; Y/Y: 1.8% v 1.7%e

- (AU) Australia sells A$2.5B v A$2.5B indicated in Nov 2024 notes, avg yield 0.1793%, bid to cover 4.6x

- (NZ) New Zealand Q4 Job Ads Q/Q: +6.4% v -9.9% prior

- (NZ) New Zealand Jan Consumer Confidence: 113.8 v 112.0 prior

- (NZ) Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ): Lends NZ$100M under Funding for Lending program (FLP), total lending under the program has risen to NZ$1.14B

China/Hong Kong

- Hang Seng opened +1%, Shanghai Composite +0.5%

- (CN) China Overnight Repo Rate trades at 3.28% rate, highest since 2015 after China injected CNY100B in liquidity with 7-day reverse repos

- (CN) China PBOC may increase cash injections by using OMOs before Lunar New Year holiday [in mid-Feb], suggests liquidity needs before the holiday are lower vs 2020 - Chinese press [in line]

- (CN) China govt said to again avoid setting a GDP growth target for 2021 citing it would encourage an unhealthy debt buildup - financial press

- (CN) China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT): To develop 15 electronic component producers with Rev in excess of CNY10B by 2023

- (CN) China Commerce Ministry (MOFCOM): Expects Domestic consumption to recover in 2021; Working to increase auto sales and regular consumption

- (CN) China PBOC Open Market Operation (OMO): Injects CNY100B in 7-day reverse repos v CNY100B in 7-day reverse repos prior; Net inject CNY98B v Net drain CNY150B prior

- (CN) China PBOC to conduct CNY5.0B in 3-month Central Bank Bill Swap (CBS) operation on today's session v CNY5.0B prior

- (CN) China PBOC sets Yuan reference rate: 6.4709 v 6.4845 prior

Japan

- Nikkei225 opened +0.4%

- (JP) Bank of Japan (BOJ) Summary of Opinions from Jan Policy Meeting: Key issue of policy review is to enhance sustainability of daily ops, while making tools agile to respond to changes in economy in timely fashion

- *(JP) JAPAN DEC PRELIMINARY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: -1.6% V -1.5%E; Y/Y: -3.2% V -3.1%E

- *(JP) JAPAN JAN TOKYO CPI Y/Y: -0.5% V -0.9%E; CPI (EX-FRESH FOOD) Y/Y: -0.4% V -0.6%E

- *(JP) JAPAN DEC JOBLESS RATE: 2.9% V 3.0%E

-*(JP) JAPAN JAN CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX: 29.6 V 29.0E

- (JP) Japan Fin Min Aso: Large Fiscal Spending if left unattended would affect markets in FX and interest rates; Looking at market impact of US Fiscal situation

- (JP) Japan Econ Min Nishimura: Coronavirus infection clusters at restaurants are declining; High levels of infections still being reported

Korea

- Kospi opened +0.3%

- Hynix [000660.KR]: Reports Q4 (KRW) Net 1.77T v -125.6B y/y, Op 966B v 930Be, Rev 7.97T v 7.6Te

- (KR) South Korea Dec Industrial Production M/M: 3.7% v 0.8%e; Y/Y: 3.4% v -0.6%e

- (KR) South Korea to announce any changes to social distancing levels on Sunday, Jan 31st - Press

North America

- (US) White House Press Sec Psaki: there is no intention to split the coronavirus relief package in order to ease its passage

- (US) Treasury Sec Yellen to give President Biden and VP Harris a briefing at 11:00EST on Jan 29th (Friday)

- (US) Senate Banking Committee Chairman Brown (D-OH) plans to hold hearing on the current state of the stock market

- Citron Research: Says to make 'major' announcement on Fri at 9 am ET (Jan 29th)

Europe

- Daimler [DAI.DE]: Reports prelim FY20 group EBIT €6.6B v €5.25B y/y

Levels as of 00:20 ET

- Nikkei 225, -1.7%, ASX 200 -0.6% , Hang Seng -0.5%; Shanghai Composite -0.4% ; Kospi -2.8%

- Equity S&P500 Futures: -1.3%; Nasdaq100 -1.5%, Dax -1%; FTSE100 -1.2%

- EUR 1.2127-1.2095 ; JPY 104.57-104.22 ; AUD 0.7689-0.7635 ;NZD 0.7187-0.7152

- Gold +0.2% at $1,844/oz; Crude Oil -0.2% at $52.22/brl; Copper -0.6% at $3.5535/lb