Regional Asian Equities Mixed, Japan FinMin Warns FX Markets

Regional Asian equities are mixed today, with little in the way of major regional news or eco data out today, investors have turned their focus to US data due out later in the week, while some investors remain cautious and are preparing for the upcoming corporate earnings season, amidst cautionary notes from some analysts who suggest that overly optimistic profit expectations, instrumental in driving various markets to all-time highs, might lead to a market correction if actual reports fall short. Earlier Japanese Finance Minister spoke about the moves in the FX markets, which followed the countries Chief currency official delivering his strongest warning in months around the weakening currency.

• Japan's equities have turned slightly higher in the second half of trading today, earlier equities prices were weighed down by comments from the Japanese FinMin's where he warned the FX market, mentioning they wouldn't rule out any options against excessive FX moves. Exporters are the worst performing sector, on the back of expected higher yen. Earlier PPI services was released coming in line with expectations at 2.1%. The Topix is up 0.12%, while the Nikkei 225 is unchanged.
• South Korean equities surged higher this morning on stronger tech prices on the back of Micron Technology surge on Monday, we now trade off those earlier highs as investors look to take profits. Earlier SK released consumer confidence data showing a fall from 101.9 in Feb to 100.7 in March, while department store sales rose 7.2% y/y and discount store sales rose 21% y/y, overal Retails sales rose 13.7% y/y vs 8.2% y/y in Jan. The Kospi is 0.76% higher.
• Taiwanese equities opened the day higher,, although have seen selling as the day has progressed and now trade down 0.12%. Taiwan's industrial production index fell by 1.10% compared to the previous year, attributed to declines in mining and quarrying by 9.80% and manufacturing by 1.20%. However, there were increases in water supply by 2.52% and electricity and gas supply by 0.78%.
• Australian equities face the greatest risk of a pullback according to Chris Montagu, Citigroup’s quantitative market strategist, who notes the market's one-sided positioning and extended levels, particularly due to its leverage to China through resources. The ASX 200 closed lower today down 0.41%
• Elsewhere in SEA, NZ equities closed down 0.29%, Indonesian equities are lower by 0.44% Tuesday they broke a 6-day streak of foreign investor equity inflows, Singapore equities are up 0.90% after Mondays CPI data showed a slight beat coming in at 3.4% vs 3.2% and Industrial Productions beat coming in at 3.8% y/y vs 0.5% expected, Malaysian equities are unchanged, while Philippines equities are down 0.50%