The Wall St. rally & slightly stronger.....>

EQUITIES: The Wall St. rally & slightly stronger than expected Chinese official

PMI data provided some support in early Asia-Pac trade, but the formal passage

of the Hong Kong security bill through the Chinese NPC seemingly capped gains.

- Monday's bid in U.S. equities was largely driven by a strong showing for

Boeing, on some idiosyncratic matters, as well as much stronger than exp. U.S.

econ data. Elsewhere, a cooling of the COVID-19 case count in some hot-spot

states wouldn't have done the bid any harm, although there were some statistical

quirks evident, and also worth remembering that the counts covered the weekend,

when new cases tend to undershoot (also some hot-spots still saw record daily

increases). Still, the +ves outweighed the fact that re-opening practices were

curtailed in several U.S. states & the latest escalation in Sino-U.S. tension.

Traders were seemingly happy to by the dip in the S&P 500 into the 3,000 level,

with a rebound ensuing on the back of the aforementioned factors, allowing the

index to close back above its 200-DMA.

- Nikkei 225 +1.6%, Hang Seng +0.9%, CSI 300 +1.1%, ASX 300 +1.3%.

- S&P 500 futures +4, DJIA Future +31, NASDAQ 100 futures +32.