E-Minis Bounce In Asia, Regional Indices Mixed

Wednesday’s Wall St. weakness failed to provide notable downside impetus for the major Asia-Pac equity indices, with participants perhaps placing a greater focus on some of the less worrying suggestions surrounding the Omicron COVID strain. The major U.S. e-mini futures contracts enjoyed a bit of a bounce (adding ~0.5%) as a result, supporting the wider equity space, with U.S. policymakers clearly willing to adopt a wait and see approach when it comes to the new variant and the potential imposition of widespread, tighter social restrictions on the domestic front. This was after broader worry re: the strain, coupled with the first detected case in the U.S., weighed on risk appetite into Wednesday’s Wall St. close.

• Still, it wasn’t plain sailing. The Hang Seng Tech Index struggled in the wake of a BBG source report which noted that “China is planning to ban companies from going public on foreign stock markets through variable interest entities, according to people familiar with the matter, closing a loophole long used by the country’s technology industry to raise capital from overseas investors.” The major regional equity indices trade within a -/+0.5% margin vs. Wednesday’s closing levels.