Mostly Lower In Asia On Risk-Off Mood; US Mega-Cap Earnings Loom

Major Asia-Pac equity indices are between 1.5% to 2.7% worse off at typing, tracking a negative lead from Wall St.

• The CSI300 sold off, sitting 2.2% worse off at typing, trading at levels last witnessed in June ‘20. Losses were observed in virtually all sub-indices, with high-beta healthcare and consumer staples again leading losses. A note that some state-owned banks have announced the lowering of rates on certificates of deposit by 10bp earlier in the session, allowing banks to charge less for loans.
• The Hang Seng struggled, dealing 2.7% weaker at typing on underperformance in the financials sub-index and weakness in China-based tech stocks, with the Hang Seng Tech Index trading 2.9% softer at writing.
• Looking outside of Asia, several U.S. tech megacaps report earnings this week (noting that ~180 companies from the S&P500 making up approx. half of the index’s value will report earnings this week). Alphabet and Microsoft kick things off on Tuesday after the closing bell. Meta is up next on Wednesday after hours, while Amazon and Apple will report after the market closes as well. A note that weakness in mega-cap Netflix last week following dismal subscriber growth numbers inspired notably softer sentiment in tech stocks globally (particularly “stay-at-home”/pandemic winners) throughout the week.
• U.S. e-mini equity index futures are off worst levels, dealing 0.4% to 0.6% softer, led by losses in DJIA contracts.
• A note that Australian markets are closed for the ANZAC holiday today.