The major regional equity markets traded.....>

STOCKS: The major regional equity markets traded in a mixed manner during

Asia-Pac hours, after a marginally positive lead from Wall St., although the NY

session was anything but plain sailing, given the latest round of trade war

pessimism, which was triggered by source reports stemming from Beijing.

- The Hang Seng outperformed. It is hard to say what the driver was here, given

the continued unrest in Hong Kong (with several hundred protestors barricaded

into a university & tensions remaining elevated). Some point to beaten down

valuations, while others tip their hat to PBoC liquidity provisions undertaken

on the mainland. It is also worth flagging that there has been solid retail

demand for Alibaba's HK listing. Mainland China markets benefitted from exp. of

a lower LPR fixing tomorrow & continued chatter surrounding broader ETF access

moving forwards. The material & energy sectors found themselves at the bottom of

the pile in Japan, with the Nikkei 225 seemingly a little more sensitive to the

aforementioned round of pessimism surrounding the trade war.

- Nikkei 225 -0.4%, Hang Seng +0.9%, CSI 300 +0.6%, ASX 200 +0.3%.

- S&P 500 futures +1, DJIA futures +15, NASDAQ 100 futures +10.