Reports » Asia

Asian stock market, economy and companies update (January 31, 2012)

Contributed by Trade The News

***Markets Snapshot (as of 05:00GMT)***
- Nikkei225 +0.2%
- S&P/ASX -0.3%
- Kospi +0.1%
- Taiwan Taiex +0.6%
- Singapore Straits Times -0.3%
- Shanghai Composite +0.2%
- Hang Seng +0.7%
- S&P Futures +0.2% at 1,311
- Feb Gold +0.2% at $1,738/oz
- March Crude +0.6% at $99.33

***Overview/Top Headlines***
- Markets were positive for most of the session but became more mixed heading into the European open. At the EU Summit Monday, more ground was made towards reaching a fiscal union. EU's Van Rompuy said today's meeting serves as stepping stone for talks in March and June; Fiscal accord to be signed at March summit. A meeting after the summit to talk about Greece was announced, EU's Juncker commented after the meeting saying there was no decision on Greece; Issue of Greek budget commissioner is off the table (was proposed over the weekend by Germany). Greece PM Papademos said that significant progress has been made in PSI talks; seeking to reach an accord on PSI in parallel with consultations on new loan packages. Hope to conclude end of talks with Trokia by the end of the week. This helped the EUR/USD to firm up testing the $1.32 handle. Japan Industrial production showed a more than expected jump in December to 4.0%, while the jobless rate ticked up to a 5-month high at 4.6%, job to applicant ratio also rose. Household spending in Japan also showed its first increase since the tsunami and earthquake. USD/JPY fell to its lowest level since 2011 intervention testing below ¥76.20. South Korea President Lee in a speech said that the government needs to take steps to contain inflation even at the expense of GDP. This caused the Korean won to strengthen against the greenback, testing KRW1,123 and the Kospi also ticker higher. With yesterday's announcement that RBNZ Gov Bollard would not seek another term, focus now turns to who will likely take his place come Autumn. New Zealand PM Key dismissed questions about considering changing New Zealand's one man policy making operations, saying it was not even being considered as the current system was working. NZD/USD gained nearly 0.7% in the session testing $0.8240, A$ was also stronger in the session. Silver traded quietly to the upside, copper lost a few cents to $3.82, corn and wheat contracts both gained.

***Speakers/Geopolitical/In the press***
- (KR) South Korea Financial Supervisory Service (FSS): Aiming for 5% household loan growth in 2012; To boost supervision of banks' foreign liquidity to address Europe-related crisis
- (VN) Vietnam Finance Ministry: Calls for state companies to lower costs by 5-10% so as to reduce product prices - financial press
- (JP) IMF's Schiff: Japan is aiming to raise consumption tax to 15% gradually after 2015; Needs to get debt to GDP ratio down by mid-decade

***Equities***
- WOW.AU: Reports Q2 Rev A$15.1B v A$15.1Be; H1 Rev A$29.7B; +5% y/y
- Samsung SDI, 006400.KR: Reports Q4 Net KRW54.9B v KRW81.3B y/y; Op KRW11.1B v KRW14.7B y/y; Rev KRW1.44T v KRW1.2T y/y
- Mitsubishi Corp, 8058.JP: Reports 9-month Net ¥370.2B v ¥359.7B y/y, Op Profit ¥232.9B v ¥266.5B y/y, Rev ¥15.17T v ¥14.3T y/y
- HMC: Reports Q3 Net ¥47.7B v ¥69Be, Op Profit ¥44.3B v ¥97Be, Rev ¥1.94T v ¥2.11Te
- OLAM.SG: To acquire 75% stake in Russia's Rusmolco for $75M
- Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, 388.HK: Will launch a yuan denominated ETF for gold under 83168.HK - HK press
- AIR.NZ: CEO Fyfe resigns, effective around the end of 2012 - NZ press (
- Tepco, 9501.JP: Japan govt to request that the company does not raise rates by as much as it plans to - Japan press

***US Equities***
- HOLX: Reports Q1 $0.34 v $0.32e, R$472.7M v $466Me; +7.1% after hours
- PCL: Reports Q4 $0.38 v $0.39e, R$315M v $305Me; -2.9% after hours
- MCK: Reports Q3 $1.40 (adj) v $1.37e, R$30.8B v $30.1Be; authorizes $650M buyback program (3% of market cap); Announces agreement to acquire businesses of Katz Group for C$920M; +3.6% after hours
- PRXL: Reports Q2 $0.23 v $0.23e, R$333.2M v $334Me; +10.4% after hours

***FX/Fixed Income/Commodities***
- (JP) Japan MoF sells ¥2.52T in 0.1% (0.1% prior) 2-yr JGBs, bid to cover: 5.35x v 4.22x prior (multi-month high)
- USD/JPY: (JP) BoJ's 7-day US dollar funding operation was tapped by banks for $1.6B
- (CN) PBoC has suspended bill sales (confirms press speculation) - Chinese press
- (JP) Japan Fin Min Azumi: Reiterates that steps will be taken on currency if needed, closely watching; Stance on the yen remains the same

***Economic Data***
- (JP) JAPAN DEC JOBLESS RATE: 4.6% V 4.5%E (5-month high); JOB-TO-APPLICANT RATIO: 0.71 V 0.70E
- (NZ) NEW ZEALAND DEC BUILDING PERMITS M/M: 2.1% V 8.0%E; 2011 permits of 13.7K fell 12.4% from 2010 (lowest on record of 46 years)
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA DEC INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: -0.9% V 1.1%E (3rd consecutive decline); Y/Y: 2.8% V 4.1%E; INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION MANUFACTURING Y/Y: 2.9% V 6.1% PRIOR
- (JP) JAPAN DEC PRELIMINARY INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION M/M: 4.0% V 3.0%E (7-month high); Y/Y: -4.1% V -5.0%E
- (JP) JAPAN DEC OVERALL HOUSEHOLD SPENDING Y/Y: +0.5% V -0.1%E (First increase since Aug 2010)
- (SG) SINGAPORE Q4 PRELIMINARY UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 2.0% V 2.1%E
- (JP) JAPAN DEC LOANS & DISCOUNTS CORP Y/Y: 0.0% V -0.4% PRIOR
- (AU) AUSTRALIA DEC NAB BUSINESS CONDITIONS: 1 V 1 PRIOR; CONFIDENCE: 3 V 2 PRIOR (6-month high)
- (SG) SINGAPORE DEC CREDIT CARD BAD DEBTS (S$): 15.6M V 13.2M PRIOR; BILLINGS: 3.5B EST V 3.2B PRIOR; BANK LOANS & ADVANCES Y/Y:30.3% V 30.5% PRIOR
- (NZ) NEW ZEALAND DEC MONEY SUPPLY M3 Y/Y: 6.0% V 6.5% PRIOR
- (AU) AUSTRALIA DEC PRIVATE SECTOR CREDIT M/M: 0.3% V 0.3%E; Y/Y: 3.5% V 3.6%E
- (SG) SINGAPORE DEC MONEY SUPPLY M1 Y/Y: 14.8% V 16.8% PRIOR; M2 Y/Y: 10.0% V 10.1% PRIOR
- (UK) UK JAN GFK CONSUMER CONFIDENCE SURVEY: -29 V -32E (7-month high)
- (AU) AUSTRALIA DEC RPDATA-RISMARK HOUSE PX RAW: -1.2% V 0.0% PRIOR; RPDATA-RISMARK PX: -0.2% V 0.4% PRIOR
- (JP) JAPAN JAN MARKIT/JMMA MANUFACTURING PMI: 50.7 V 50.2 PRIOR (5-month high)
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA DEC LEADING INDEX Y/Y: 1.5% V 1.1% PRIOR
- (KR) SOUTH KOREA DEC SERVICE INDUSTRY OUTPUT Y/Y: 1.6% V 2.7% PRIOR
- (JP) JAPAN DEC VEHICLE PRODUCTION Y/Y: 13.4% V 4.5% PRIOR
- (JP) JAPAN DEC HOUSING STARTS Y/Y: -7.3% V -1.5%E (4th consecutive decline); CONSTRUCTION ORDERS Y/Y: 1.5% V 21.0% PRIOR; HOUSING STARTS; ANNUALIZED HOUSING STARTS: K V 848KE
- (CO) Colombia Central Bank raises Overnight Lending Rate by 25bps to 5%; Not expected