Regional Asian Equities Mixed, Japan The Top Performer

Asian equity markets are mixed today as US equities trade sideways for a second day. Japanese equities are the top performing in the region after a down day on Wednesday, while South Korea and Australia markets edge lower. There hasn't been much in the way of headlines, other than Japan's Suzuki warning about excessive FX moves again, while Japan also had some data out earlier with Labor cash earnings missing estimates, the BoJ statement of opinion with the Leading & Coincident Index's to come soon and in the EM space Philippines GDP was slightly lower than consensus and Malaysian CB policy rate is due out a bit later.

• Japanese equities are higher today, earlier labor cash earnings YoY missed estimates coming in at 0.6% vs 1.4% and down from 1.8% in Feb, while BoJ summaries of opinion, some notable headlines were one member stating that the rate path could be higher than expected while another stated discussions on rate hike timing should also deepen The JPY continues to be a focus with the USDJPY now trading at 155.56, vs 151.80 post what is speculated to be intervention last week, while government officials continued to issue warnings to the markets this morning. The Nikkei is 0.34% higher, while the Topix performers better up 0.70%
• South Korean equities are lower this morning, earlier we had BoP Current Account Balance which increased from the prior month to $6931.4m, from $6858.3m. The Kospi remains one of the top performing markets in the region and now eyes a test of recent highs, although is down 1.10% today.
• Taiwan equities are slightly lower today, late Wednesday we had trade balance data out which showed the exports to the US surge and shipments to China falling, while the trade surplus narrowed to $6.46b from $8.67b in March. The Taiex is currently down 0.12%
• Australian equities are lower today as Banks and health stocks drag on the benchmark. Energy shares advanced as oil ticked higher. There is very little on the local calendar until Monday when we have NAB business surveys. The ASX200 is down 1.10%.
• Elsewhere in SEA, New Zealand equities are down 0.50%, Singapore equities unchanged, Philippines equities are down 1.00% after 1Q GDP came in at 5.7% just below consensus of 5.9%, Indonesian equities continue to see foreign investors sell with 23 of the past 25 days seeing outflows the JCI trades down 0.50%, while Malaysian equities trade 00.24% ahead of the central bank decision later today.