Asian Equities Lower, Tech Stocks Fall Ahead Of Key Events

Asian markets declined as investor sentiment cooled ahead of key central bank events, including Jerome Powell's upcoming Jackson Hole speech the MSCI Asia Pacific is down 0.70%. Japanese stocks fell, as a stronger yen raised concerns about earnings, particularly for exporters like carmakers. In South Korea, the KOSPI opened lower, following Wall Street's overnight losses, with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix tracking Nvidia's slide. Meanwhile, Chinese equities are lower after JD.com dropped 11% while property stocks were in focus amid speculation of new funding options for local governments. Thailand & Indonesia both have interest rate decisions later today.

• Japanese equities are off earlier lows, tech stocks have been the worst performing following by bank after they had recently outperformed the market. The TOPIX Bank Index is off 0.90%, while the Nikkei is down 0.35% and the wider TOPIX Index is down 0.30%, the stronger yen is hurting exporters. Investors are cautious ahead of key central bank events, including appearances by BoJ Governor Ueda and Jerome Powell later this week at Jackson Hole.
• China & Hong Kong equities are lower today, although well off session lows. Walmart look to have sold their stake in JD.com for $3.6b, which saw equity fall about 11%, elsewhere new plans for local Chinese governments to issue bonds in order to purchase property has been considered although this has done very little to help with equity prices and Europe has announced plans to impose tariffs on EVs shipped from China, although the rate was slightly lower than initially expected, causing equities to trade about 1% higher, however EV indices still trades near multi-year lows. The HSI is down 0.95%, HSTech is down 2%, while Mainland Property Index is down 1.45%, China mainland equities are trading slightly better with the CSI 300 down just 0.10%.
• South Korean stocks opened lower, mirroring overnight losses on Wall Street ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting later this week although we have pared most of those gains now. Major tech stocks like Samsung Electronics (-1%) and SK hynix (-3.45%) are underperforming while the KRW has held onto recent gains at trades at 1,331.75. The KOSPI is now flat, while the small-cap focused KOSDAQ is 1.25% lower.
• Taiwan equities are lower today, also the losses are largely confined to just tech stocks with TSMC down 1.45% which is contributing the most. Industrials & Utilities are both higher with J&V Energy up over 4.50%. Foreign investors have returned to the local market recently, also still sit at about a $1.5b outflow since Aug 5th, the Taiex is down 0.75% today.
• Australian equities are also lower today, tech stocks are outperforming with Wisetech up 15% following strong earnings estimates although these gains have been offset by losses Financials and energy stocks. Earlier, Westpac's leading Index fell 0.04% in July, after being revised slightly higher to 0.01% in June from 0.00%. The ASX 200 is 0.10% lower. In New Zealand the NZX 50 is 0.50% lower, as investors take profit in healthcare and industrials while A2 Milk has seen a small bounce after dropping about 20% on Monday following disappointing results.
• In EM Asia equities, Indonesian JCI is 0.40% higher ahead of the BI rate decision where they are expected to keep rates unchanged to support the IDR, Thailands SET is up 0.50% ahead of BOT rate decision, Philippine's PSEi has pared earlier gains and now trades down 0.30%, while Singapore's Strait Times is down 0.30%, Malaysia's KLCI is down 0.20% while India's Nifty 50 is unchanged.