Lower As Commodities Hover Near Two-Week Highs

Major Asia-Pac equity indices are mostly lower at typing, following a negative lead from Wall St. Commodity-related sectors across the region largely outperformed peers despite a slight downtick in commodity and crude prices during Asia-Pac dealing, with major commodity benchmarks continuing to trade a touch below two-week highs, above their respective ranges observed in Wednesday’s Asian session, pointing to some “catch up.”

• The ASX200 led regional index peers, finishing 0.1% better off, reversing earlier losses due to gains in materials, energy, and utilities stocks. On the other hand, the technology, healthcare, and financials sub-indices were unable to fully recover from initial losses, providing some counter to the commodity-led rally.
• The CSI300 underperformed, dealing 0.8% softer at typing. Chinese liquor stocks bore the brunt of the day’s selling, led by losses in large-caps such as Kweichow Moutai and Luzhou Laojiao.
• The Hang Seng sits 0.3% softer at typing.after pulling back from worst levels of the day. Underperforming China-based tech names were largely able to pare their early losses, although Tencent Holdings (-3.5%) underperformed after showing no signs of plans for fresh stock buybacks (as well as reporting an earnings miss on Wednesday), after Alibaba and Xiaomi announced their own stock buybacks earlier in the week. Around two-thirds of the Hang Seng’s constituents have reported earnings, with releases underperforming analyst expectations by ~0.8% thus far.
• U.S. e-mini equity index futures sit 0.2% to 0.5% firmer at writing, benefitting from the downtick in crude oil prices.