Weekend News Round Up - Newsquawk Asia-Pac Market Open

• US and European markets were closed on Friday.
• Chinese Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI data topped forecasts with the former back in expansion territory at 50.8 vs Exp. 49.9 (Prev. 49.1).
• Looking ahead, highlights include BoJ Quarterly Tankan Survey & Manufacturing PMI, South Korean Trade Data & Chinese Caixin Manufacturing PMI.

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LOOKING AHEAD

• Clock changes: UK and European clocks moved forward 1 hour and London-NY time differential is now 5 hours.
• Desk: Service will run as normal on Sunday March 31st at 2200BST for the beginning of the Asia-Pac session and will run until Monday 1st April at 0630BST at which point the service will halt due to the closure of EU and UK markets. The service will then resume at 1300BST for the beginning of the US session with US markets subject to a regular open.
• Highlights include BoJ Quarterly Tankan Survey & Manufacturing PMI, South Korean Trade Data & Chinese Caixin Manufacturing PMI.
• Click here for the Newsquawk Week Ahead.

US TRADE

• US and European markets were closed on Friday.

NOTABLE HEADLINES

• Fed Chair Powell said on Friday that it is good to see PCE was in line with expectations and the February reading is definitely along the lines of what they want to see, while he added their hand is steady and they are making progress. Powell said they didn’t overreact to last year’s good data and won’t react to the two higher months this year, as well as noted that risks are two-sided and reducing rates too soon would be very disruptive but also noted that waiting too long could mean unneeded damage to the economy and labour market.

FX

• Istanbul’s Mayor and main opposition candidate Imamoglu declared victory in the Istanbul election after leading by more than a million votes with 96% of ballots opened, according to Reuters.

COMMODITIES

• Russian Defence Ministry said Russia struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and gas production facilities, according to RIA.
• Iraq signed an MOU with Siemens and Schlumberger for investment in gas, according to a statement from its Oil Ministry.

GEOPOLITICAL

MIDDLE EAST

• Israel and Hamas truce negotiations were reported to resume on Sunday in Cairo, according to Egypt’s Al Qahera News TV.
• Israeli PM Netanyahu said there will be no victory over Hamas without a Rafah operation and that nothing will stop the operation against Hamas in Rafah. Netanyahu also said more than 200 gunmen were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital and he prefers to resolve the security situation in the north diplomatically but will do so in other ways if that does not work, while his office announced that he was to undergo surgery for hernia on Sunday, according to Reuters.
• Israel’s military said it carried out an air strike against an Islamic Jihad command centre operating in Gaza’s Al-Aqsa hospital, according to Reuters.
• It was reported that an Israeli strike hit a car carrying UN observers near the south Lebanon border, according to two security sources cited by Reuters. However, the Israeli military said it did not strike a UNIFIL vehicle in south Lebanon and later announced that it killed a significant Hezbollah commander in an airstrike in Lebanon.
• UN peacekeeping mission said three UN observers and one translator were wounded when a shell exploded near their location in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon’s PM Mikati condemned the ‘targeting’ of UN forces that wounded observers, according to Reuters.
• US State Department said it welcomes the nomination of a new Palestinian Authority cabinet to serve the Palestinian people and the US looks forward to working with the new cabinet to promote peace, security and prosperity, according to Reuters.
• Syrian air defence intercepted ‘hostile targets’ in the vicinity of Damasus and its Defence Ministry said two were injured in the Israeli strikes on the outskirts of Damascus, according to Reuters.
• A car blast in a rebel-held Syrian town near the Turkish border killed at least six people and injured twenty.

OTHER

• Ukrainian President Zelensky said they will have to retreat in small steps if they don’t get US support and that they are trying to find some way not to retreat.
• Russia demanded that Ukraine hand over all persons linked to terrorist acts in Russia including the head of the Ukrainian security service, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Furthermore, Ukraine’s SBU security service later commented that Russia’s statement on handing over individuals is pointless, cynical and originates from a terrorist state.
• Former Global Times Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin posted on X that China’s PLA Southern Theater Command conducted real combat training in the South China Sea and the Philippines’ President Marcos’s administration should notice this, while he added that PLA organised combat training exercises in simulated strikes of “enemy” armed fishing boats harassing China in its sea areas.

ASIA-PAC

NOTABLE HEADLINES

• Japan and the EU are to establish a framework for the joint development of advanced materials for next-generation batteries and chips to reduce reliance on China, according to Nikkei.

DATA RECAP

• Chinese Manufacturing PMI (Mar) 50.8 vs Exp. 49.9 (Prev. 49.1)
• Chinese Non-Manufacturing PMI (Mar) 53.0 vs Exp. 51.3 (Prev. 51.4)
• Chinese Composite PMI (Mar) 52.7 (Prev. 50.7)

EU/UK

NOTABLE HEADLINES

• UK’s ruling Conservative Party faces its worst election result with Labour projected to win more than 70% of seats at the next general election, according to a Bloomberg report citing a poll by Survation on behalf of Best for Britain. It was separately reported by FT that PM Sunak’s allies said his hopes of winning the next general election could be boosted if he waits until after a potentially chaotic US election and could be seen as a tested leader, according to FT.
• ECB’s Holzmann said Europe could lower interest rates before the US and noted the European economy was growing more slowly than the US economy, while he said the timing of rate cuts will depend largely on what wage and price developments look like by June, according to Reuters citing Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung.
• ECB’s Stournaras said the ECB could potentially cut rates by a total of 100bps this year but added there was still no consensus within the central bank on that, according to Reuters citing an interview with Proto Thema.