U.S. equities rallied again on Tuesday,......>

STOCKS: U.S. equities rallied again on Tuesday, with familiar matters in the

driving seat: the flattening of the COVID-19 curves & the Fed's seemingly

constant flow of monetary stimulus. However, Wall St.'s rally failed to lend

support to the Asia-Pac region, with a focus on the U.S. earnings season.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America & United Health provide the highlights

of the U.S. earnings docket on Wednesday, with focus on the banks, after

J.P.Morgan & Wells Fargo provided a soft start for the sector when they reported

on Tuesday. There was a slight dent in regional liquidity, with South Korea

closed for the day, although that wouldn't have been drastic re: broader impact.

- The major regional indices edged lower, following the beat of U.S. equity

index futures, as the latest round of PBoC easing (which was more of a

sequential matter on the back of the cut to the 7-day reverse repo rate in late

March) & implementation of 50bp worth of the Bank's recently announced targeted

RRR cut doing little for broader risk appetite.

- Nikkei 225 -0.1%, Hang Seng -0.1%, CSI -0.3%, ASX 200 -0.4%.

- S&P 500 futures -16, DJIA futures -129, NASDAQ 100 futures -39.