Aug 10 ,2023
Synopsis:
Asian equities largely higher Thursday as investor sentiment improved over the day. Hong Kong fell sharply at the open only to recover by the close, mainland China benchmarks also pared losses. Steep declines in Taipei, Seoul also under pressure as tech stocks lagged. Australia closed a little higher, Southeast Asia mixed, India seeing declines. US futures higher, European benchmarks opened higher. US dollar lower, yen weakened to four-week low before strengthening. Treasury yields higher across tenors. Crude oil higher, precious metals mixed, industrial metals seeing some strength.
Asia markets saw improving sentiment over the day on renewed hope of China action on its economy. Hong Kong opened sharply lower, once again weighed by worries over the strength of economic recovery but the trend reversed after Beijing announced a relaxing of international travel restrictions for tour groups, giving hope of more stimulus to come. Taiwan underperformed on notable weakness in technology stocks, India failed to capitalize on some positive comments from its central bank over growth with banks underperforming on changes to the CRR rules.
Country Garden's selloff continued following company's missed coupon payment, underlining liquidity stress among Chinese property developers. US President Biden signed long-discussed executive order limiting American investment in China, which weighed on stocks early on. Philippines Q2 growth slowed by more than expected amid external demand weakness. Japan Q2 GDP growth forecast revised up in JCER poll. RBI kept its repo rate on hold, as expected.
Sony Group (6758.JP) warned on smartphone demand, entertainment outlook as Hollywood writers' strike bites, and marketing expenses for Nintendo; stock sharply lower. Baidu (9888.HK), ByteDance, Tencent (700.HK) and Alibaba (9988.HK) have all rushed to order $5B in Nvidia (NVDA) chips ahead of export restrictions. China Renaissance (1911.HK) says its chairman is still cooperating in an unspecified police investigation; stock remains suspended. Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) said it is lukewarm on ARM's IPO saying company is overvalued. Woodside Energy (WDS.AU) and Chevron (CVX) said to be talking to workers to avert a strike threat that sent European gas futures sharply higher Wednesday.
Digest:
Biden signs executive order on US investment in countries of concern:
White House announced President Biden signed an executive order on addressing US investments in certain national security technologies and products in countries of concern. Authorizes Treasury Secretary to regulate certain US investments into countries of concern in entities engaged in activities involving sensitive technologies critical to national security in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and AI. Executive order explicitly mentions China, which drew most of the media attention. Bloomberg noted that while details of the rules still need to be worked out, the language of the order suggested that Treasury and those advocating a more cautious approach won out. Order will not go into effect until next year, nor will it be retroactive and excludes sectors such as biotech. It may end up exempting passive investments as well as those in publicly traded securities, index funds and other assets. FT reported UK PM Sunak is weighing whether to follow suit as Washington waits to see if allies will back the measures. Cited a government statement that UK will consider the new measures closely as they continue to assess potential national security risks attached to some investments.
Higher US Treasury yields threaten to push slide in Asian equities:
Bloomberg noted higher US Treasury yields are threatening to accelerate recent selloff in Asian stocks by making valuations less attractive. Treasury yields lifted by Fed Reserve's push to tame inflation and increase in government borrowings to fund widening US budget deficits. 10Y Treasury yield rose to as high as 4.2% last Friday before pulling back to around 4%. Catalysts for yields to climb again include July inflation data due Thursday, renewed rises in oil and food prices. Long-run inflation expectations rose to around 2.5%, near a nine-year high. Strategists are watching whether sustained rise in US borrowing costs will lead to "credit event" that will likely have negative implications for Asian stocks, which have been under selling pressure as investors trim positions in semiconductor and China stocks. Higher Treasury yields also helped support US dollar, which saw institutional funds withdraw $2.2B from emerging Asia ex China markets last week, biggest net outflow since March.
Latest China developer debt problems could prompt policy aid, though meaningful resolution unlikely:
Reuters discussed takeaways in reaction to Country Garden's (2007.HK) $22M missed coupon payments, prompting thoughts this could prod regulators into rolling out stronger aid measures, but they had little faith such steps would resolve debt problems in the sector any time soon. Contagion fears in the market re-surfaced last month when four high-profile developers signaled liquidity stress amid slumping home sales nation-wide. Problems extending to state-backed developers despite relatively favorable financing conditions. Cited a company statement acknowledging ongoing problems with usable cash having declined and showing "periodic liquidity stress" due to a deterioration in sales, a difficult refinancing environment and the impact of various regulations on funding sources. Despite some hopes Country Garden could still pay the coupon within the 30-day grace period, its massive upcoming bond payment schedule will still be a huge hurdle to overcome. Still, a range of developer executives told Reuters that a default by Country Garden would have limited impact on the wider sector, as bank lending and liquidity are already very tight -- though some suggestion conditions could tighten further to prioritize completion of sold homes.
China internet firms order $5B of Nvidia chips for generative AI systems:
FT cited multiple sources indicating major Chinese internet firms Baidu (BIDU), Tencent (700.HK), Alibaba (BABA) and ByteDance have submitted orders to acquire 100,000 A800 processors valued at $1B from Nvidia (NVDA) for delivery this year, plus an additional $4B worth of the GPUs to be delivered next year. Demand was fueled by fears of new US export controls as well as broader GPU shortages driven by strong demand. Article noted Chinese tech companies can only purchase A800s (slower than A100s) after exports restrictions implemented by Washington last year. Also discussed developments in the engineering of homemade large language models after the success of ChatGPT, for which, Nvidia chips are seen as crucial. ByteDance said to have stockpiled at least 10K Nvidia GPUs and ordered almost 70K A800s for delivery next year worth ~$700M. Alibaba Cloud has also received thousands of H800 chipos from Nvidia. Story recalled that Chinese internet giants had less than a few thousand chips on inventory that could be used to train large language models earlier this year when excitement about AI gathered momentum.
RBI keeps repo rate unchanged, says India can become growth engine for the world:
RBI's MPC unanimously voted to keep its repo rate unchanged at 6.5% for the third consecutive meeting and as largely expected. Governor Das said 5-1 decision was also made to remain focused on "withdrawal of accommodation" stance with inflation back within bank's target range (Mint). Bank forecast FY CPI at 5.4% from previous 5.1% in previous review but still inside bank's 2-6% target range. Bank warned vegetable prices, higher crude oil import prices, will lead to surge in CPI in July-August but could reverse quickly. Bank maintained its FY growth target of 6.5%, FY24 also at 6.5%. Das added India economy "exuding enhanced strength and stability" despite shocks to global economy, India can become new growth engine for world. Separately, RBI asked India banks to set aside larger portion of deposits under incremental cash reserve ratio rules to tighten liquidity in the near term (EconomicTimes).
Notable Gainers:
+16.6% 1605.JP (INPEX Corp): reports Q2 revenue ¥1.079T vs FactSet ¥517.57B, operating income ¥570.53B vs FactSet ¥261.17B; to launch up-to-¥100B buyback, to run from 10-Aug to 29-Dec
+10.3% 3659.JP (NEXON Co.): reports Q2 revenue ¥94.44B vs FactSet ¥96.42B, operating income ¥27.61B vs FactSet ¥27.73B; to launch ¥20B on-market buyback, running from 10-Aug to 27-Oct
+6.8% 4901.JP (FUJIFILM): reports Q1 revenue ¥660.76B vs StreetAccount ¥648.46B, operating income ¥52.22B vs StreetAccount ¥51.56B
+5.9% 7267.JP (Honda Motor): reports Q1 revenue ¥4.625T vs SA ¥4.634T, operating income ¥394.45B vs SA ¥325.20B; to implement 3-for-1 stock split for ADRs, effective 1-Oct
Notable Decliners:
-17.1% 669.HK (Techtronic Industries): reports H1 net income attributable $475.8M vs StreetAccount $555.6M
-12.0% 7733.JP (Olympus): reports Q1 revenue ¥207.72B vs StreetAccount ¥210.51B, operating profit ¥22.48B vs StreetAccount ¥30.79B; to buy remaining shares in Olympus Terumo Biomaterials from Terumo; terms undisclosed
-3.2% 6758.JP (Sony): reports Q1 results with PlayStation 5 sales volume (units) 3.3M vs SA 4.6M, across segments Pictures revenue ¥320.37B vs SA ¥370.60B; guides FY Pictures revenue ¥1.470T vs prior guidance ¥1.520T and FactSet ¥1.545T
-2.1% 000333.CH (Midea Group): to potentially launch H-share IPO
Data:
Economic:
Japan
July CGPI y/y +3.6% versus +4.3% in prior month
Markets:
Nikkei: 269.32 or +0.84% to 32473.65
Hang Seng: 2.23 or +0.01% to 19248.26
Shanghai Composite: 10.07 or +0.31% to 3254.56
Shenzhen Composite: 2.64 or +0.13% to 2041.41
ASX200: 19.40 or +0.26% to 7357.40
KOSPI: (3.56) or (0.14%) to 2601.56
SENSEX: (291.66) or (0.44%) to 65704.16
Currencies:
$-¥: +0.09 or +0.07% to 143.8180
$-KRW: (0.22) or (0.02%) to 1313.7000
A$-$: +0.00 or +0.31% to 0.6551
$-INR: (0.11) or (0.13%) to 82.8170
$-CNY: (0.00) or (0.02%) to 7.2077
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