Economic Data
(NZ) NEW ZEALAND Q4 CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE (NZ$): -2.76B V -2.8BE (7th consecutive quarter of deficit); CURRENT ACCOUNT TO GDP RATIO YTD: -4.0% V -4.0%E
(AU) AUSTRALIA FEB DEWR INTERNET SKILLED VACANCIES M/M : -0.2% V -0.1% PRIOR (8th consecutive decline)
(NZ) NEW ZEALAND FEB CREDIT CARD SPENDING M/M: 0.5% V 0.8% PRIOR; Y/Y: 4.0% V 3.1% PRIOR
(AU) AUSTRALIA JAN WESTPAC LEADING INDEX M/M: 0.6% V 0.7% PRIOR
(JP) Japan Jan All Industry Activity Index y/y: -1.0% v -0.7%e
(TH) THAILAND JAN CURRENT ACCOUNT: $757M V $1.9B PRIOR
(NZ) NEW ZEALAND FEB NET MIGRATION: -440 V -620 PRIOR
(KR) According to South Korea Customs Service March 1-20th Trade Balance -$2.5B; Exports -2.7% y/y
Markets Snapshot (as of 05:00GMT)
Nikkei225 -0.5%
S&P/ASX -0.5%
Kospi -0.7%
Taiwan Taiex -0.1%
Singapore Straits Times -0.3%
Shanghai Composite -0.5%
Hang Seng -0.4%
S&P Futures +0.3% at 1,403
Spot gold +0.4% at $1,653/oz
May Crude +0.4% at $106.54
Overview/Top Headlines
Markets continue to be weaker as the region worries that the engine of growth, China, is going to slow down significantly and impact its neighbors and the world. Miners continue to lead the declines across all indices after comments yesterday saying that iron ore and coal demand from China will slow. Today Rio Tinto and OneSteel said they expect Chinese demand to remain strong. The EUR was boosted above $1.3280 after Greece's parliament approved the deal for its bailout, as expected. Oil gained back some of its losses sustained in the NY session. There was a surprise draw in crude supplies last week according to the American Petroleum Institute (API). Bond yields rose in Australia and South Korea. US 10-yr yields declined and then settled unchanged. Fed's Kocherlakota said that accommodative policy has kept inflation near 2% target and that easier policy by itself cannot increase employment. A comment of note was that, strong jobs reports have not matched with output. Also expects the Fed to start to remove stimulus and move away from zero rates in 2012 or 2013. Australia's second largest retailer David Jones (DJS.AU) fell 11% after it warned that its full year results may see net profit fall by 40% y/y. Indicated that slower consumer spending and higher costs were the main factors. Commodities took a turn for the positive, copper gained to $3.87 after posting its biggest lost in 2 weeks in yesterday's session. Silver gained nearly 1% to $32.29, corn and wheat also followed suit. USD was generally weaker across the majors and emerging market currencies.
Speakers/Geopolitical/In the press
(US) Fed Chairman Bernanke to reiterate continued risk of "contagion" from European fiscal crisis for US financial system as part of tomorrow's address - US press
(CN) Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma Zhaoxu: China to continue to play a part in assisting with European debt crisis through G20 and IMF - China Daily
(JP) Japan Fin Min Azumi: Still expects that the Cabinet will submit sales tax bill this month; Difficult to set numerical targets for sales tax hike in tax bill
(CN) China Premier Wen: The Govt is pushing forward policy innovations and regulations to make the yuan float more freely, and the currency will be freely convertible at the right time - Chinese press
(NZ) New Zealand Fin Min English: Meeting fiscal targets demands control of spending; High NZD makes it hard to improve trade balance
(CN) Luxury vehicle dealers BMW, Audi and Daimler have started offering discounts in China amid weakening in demand - SCMP
Equities
Hankook Tire, 000240.KR: Exec: Planning to increase tire prices by 5% in 2012 - US financial press
384.HK: Consortium of ENN Energy and Sinopec have extended HK$16.7B offer for China Gas
RIO: Exec: Iron ore miners need to produce extra 100M tons per year for the next 7 years to match Chinese demand; Expects a soft landing in China - SMH
DJS.AU: Reports H1 Net A$85M v A$84Me; Rev A$1.01B, -6.7% y/y
US Equities
SAI: Reports Q4 $0.31 v $0.34e, R$2.49B v $2.7Be; Initiates $0.12 quarterly dividend and 40M share buyback (about 12% of shares outstanding); +0.6% after hours
ORCL: Reports Q3 $0.62 (adj) v $0.56e, R$9.04B v $9.0Be; +1.5% after hours
JBL: Reports Q2 $0.58 v $0.58e, R$4.24B v $4.1Be; -2.4% after hours
CTAS: Reports Q3 $0.58 v $0.52e, R$1.01B v $1.0Be; +1.9% after hours
ERJ: Reports Q4 -$0.51 (incl charges) v +$0.68 y/y, Rev $2.03B v $1.97B y/y; -0.3% after hours