A particularly sombre view from heavily....>

EQUITIES: A particularly sombre view from heavily cited investor Stanley

Druckenmiller and potential U.S. legal action, that would open the way to

sanctions against China (reportedly on both human rights and COVID-19 matters),

being tabled in Congress weighed on Wall St. into the NY close and provided a

negative lead at the start of the Asia-Pac session.

- Continued pushback from various Fed officials on the idea of negative interest

rates, in addition to heightened caution surrounding the economy from the

majority of the Fed officials that spoke, would have also dented risk appetite.

- That being said bears failed to force a clean break below S&P 500 e-mini

technical support in the form of the 20- & 50-EMA's, although they were breached

intraday. This allowed U.S. equity index futures to recover, with the major

Asia-Pacific equity indices moving off of their worst levels as a result.

- Nikkei 225 -0.5%, Hang Seng unch., CSI 300 -0.3%, ASX 200 -0.4%.

- S&P 500 futures +1, DJIA futures +41, NASDAQ 100 futures +8.