Archives of “August 19, 2020” day

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Reminder: OPEC+ JMMC meeting will take place later today

  
  Analysis
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The meeting is scheduled for 1400 GMT

But just take note that with all things OPEC+ related, there’s a likelihood it could be delayed for a few minutes or hours and what not. So, it will happen when it happens.

That said, the meeting today is likely just to reaffirm the bloc’s commitment to production cuts and to assess the compliance over the past two months.
The July compliance is slated to be at around 95% to 97% – down from 107% in June – but it shouldn’t be much of a problem all things considered, especially since oil prices are holding at more favourable levels (at least from the bloc’s perception).

Nikkei 225 closes higher by 0.26% at 23,110.61

  
Analysis, Global Indices

A mixed day for Asian equities

NKY 19-08

Japanese stocks are taking more positive cues from Wall Street yesterday, with the slight drop in the yen earlier on also helping exporter stocks a little.

Elsewhere, the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite are both down by 0.8% and that is making for a bit more of a mixed mood despite record highs in US stocks yesterday.
US futures are up ~0.1% but is generally trading little changed as we look to get the European morning session underway. In the currencies space, the dollar is staying a little softer as the momentum from yesterday continues slightly.

Japan ruling party lawmaker says unlikely to propose ban or restriction on TikTok

  
  Analysis
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Comments by Japan ruling party lawmaker Nakayama

But says that a change of ownership of TikTok’s Japan operations is one possible way to address concerns over the app and whether or not it is safe to use.
A coordinated move by US and its allies against Chinese firms could draw further ire from China and that may see tensions escalate i.e. impact the risk mood. For now at least, it is still mostly the Trump administration coming down hard on TikTok and ByteDance.

German virus cases continue to climb, Merkel warns against further relaxing restrictions

  
  Analysis

Germany reports another 1,510 new coronavirus cases today, that is the highest daily count since the end of April

Merkel
That brings the total active cases across the country to ~13,700 – the most since 14 May. Meanwhile, another 7 deaths were reported and that brings the total tally on that front to 9,243 persons as of the latest reporting today.
The virus situation continues to progress in the wrong direction and RKI also made special mention of that in their report from yesterday with the 4-day virus reproduction rate (R-value) estimated at 1.06 and the 7-day R-value estimated at 1.05:

The reported R values has been around 1 or slightly above since mid-July 2020. According to current observation, this seems to be associated to a great extent with an increasing number of cases among travel returnees. Further it is also associated with a larger number of smaller outbreaks and case numbers in Germany overall, which have increased steadily in recent weeks since the relaxation of the measures.

This has also prompted German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to break her silence yesterday as she warned against further relaxing virus restrictions and called on citizens to respect social distancing and hygiene rules to limit the spread of the infection.

Japan trade balance for July Y +11.6bn (expected Y -86.5bn)

  
Analysis, Economy

Japan trade balance for July shows a surplus of 11.6bn yen, a beat

  • expected Y -86.5bn, prior Y -269.3bn

Trade balance adjusted Y -34.8bn

  • expected Y -45.3bn, prior Y -423.9bn

Exports -19.2% y/y ‘not as disastrous as expected’ is the new beat for exports

  • expected -20.9% y/y, prior -26.2%

Imports -22.3% y/y and ditto for imports

  • expected -23.0% y/y, prior -14.4%
Yen has shown a little strength on the session so far, USD/JPY has dropped under its US timezone lows.
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