Articles
14 December 2018

ASEAN morning bytes 14 December 2018

General market tone: Risk off.

Investors likely to book gains and keep to the sidelines digesting the developments on US-China trade and the ECB decision.

International theme: Markets to stay cautious with ECB ending its bond-buying program and ahead of the China data dump

  • Directional trading was muted on Thursday with market players digesting developments on US-China while the ECB prepared to end its bond-buying program this month. Crude oil prices rose in reaction to supply data while market players will look to Chinese data for direction.

EM Space: Emerging markets to take their cue from China data reports on Friday

  • General Asia: Investors will be data dependent on Friday with traders likely to take their cue from the Chinese data dump and US retail sales later in the session. For the time being, profit taking may be the theme with investors looking ahead to next week’s Fed meeting.
  • Philippines: The Philippine central bank kept policy settings unchanged while lowering its inflation forecast to 5.2% in 2018 (from 5.3%), 3.18% in 2019 (from 3.3) and to 3.04% (from 3.3%) in 2020. The lower inflation forecast of BSP likely reflects lower government crude oil price assumptions and LTFRB’s rollback of jeepney fares. With BSP slashing its forecasts over the policy horizon the possibility of an early reversal in policy stance in 2019 has increased with BSP possibly reducing borrowing costs as early as 2Q 2019.

What to look out for: China data dump

  • China retail sales, industrial production (14 December)
  • Hong Kong industrial production (14 December)
  • US retail sales (14 December)

Disclaimer

"THINK Outside" is a collection of specially commissioned content from third-party sources, such as economic think-tanks and academic institutions, that ING deems reliable and from non-research departments within ING. ING Bank N.V. ("ING") uses these sources to expand the range of opinions you can find on the THINK website. Some of these sources are not the property of or managed by ING, and therefore ING cannot always guarantee the correctness, completeness, actuality and quality of such sources, nor the availability at any given time of the data and information provided, and ING cannot accept any liability in this respect, insofar as this is permissible pursuant to the applicable laws and regulations.

This publication does not necessarily reflect the ING house view. This publication has been prepared solely for information purposes without regard to any particular user's investment objectives, financial situation, or means. The information in the publication is not an investment recommendation and it is not investment, legal or tax advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any financial instrument. Reasonable care has been taken to ensure that this publication is not untrue or misleading when published, but ING does not represent that it is accurate or complete. ING does not accept any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss arising from any use of this publication. Unless otherwise stated, any views, forecasts, or estimates are solely those of the author(s), as of the date of the publication and are subject to change without notice.

The distribution of this publication may be restricted by law or regulation in different jurisdictions and persons into whose possession this publication comes should inform themselves about, and observe, such restrictions.

Copyright and database rights protection exists in this report and it may not be reproduced, distributed or published by any person for any purpose without the prior express consent of ING. All rights are reserved.

ING Bank N.V. is authorised by the Dutch Central Bank and supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB), the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). ING Bank N.V. is incorporated in the Netherlands (Trade Register no. 33031431 Amsterdam).