Regional equity markets struggled in.......>

EQUITIES: Regional equity markets struggled in Asia-Pac hours, in the wake of a

soft showing on Wall St., surrounding Sino-U.S. tensions, worry re: legal

headwinds for the tech sector and an unexpected uptick in the weekly U.S.

initial jobless claims data.

- Chinese equity markets underperformed, with participants on the lookout for an

announcement out of China re: countermeasures to the U.S. bid to close the

Chinese consulate in Houston. As we have noted, speculation pointed to the

potential for China to target the closure of a U.S. consulate on the Chinese

mainland, or in Macau/Hong Kong. China eventually settled on demanding the

closure of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, avoiding the worst case scenario,

which would have been a move against the consulate in Hong Kong.

- A reminder that broader market liquidity was limited by a Japanese holiday.

- Worth recapping that Intel flagged a delay in its chip development process

alongside its quarterly earnings release, pressuring the stock after hours.

- Nikkei 225 closed, Hang Seng -1.8%, CSI 300 -3.0%, ASX 200 -1.3%.

- S&P 500 futures -10, DJIA futures -110, NASDAQ 100 futures -75.