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Azerbaijan gas output in 2015 totalled 29.1 BCM - energy minister

Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said the country's gas production in 2015 totalled 29.1 billion cubic metres (bcm). He said gas output from the Azeri Shah Deniz field was seen at 10.1 bcm in 2016, up from 9.9 bcm ilast year, and that oil production at BP-operated ACG fields amounted to 31 million tonnes last year.


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Australian Dollar Falls Against Majors

The Australian dollar weakened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Tuesday. The Australian dollar fell to a 4-day low of 0.9945 against the Canadian dollar, from yesterday's closing value of 0.9993. Against the U.S. dollar, the yen and the euro, the aussie dropped to 0.6839, 80.19 and 1.5943 from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6865, 80.51 and 1.5861, respectively. If the aussie extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 0.98 against the loonie, 0.67 against the greenback, 79.00 against the yen and 1.61 against the euro.

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NZ Dollar Drops Against Majors

The New Zealand dollar weakened against the other major currencies in the Asian session on Wednesday. The NZ dollar fell to more than a 3-month low of 1.7165 against the euro and a 5-day low of 74.61 against the yen, from yesterday's closing quotes of 1.7000 and 75.38, respectively. Against the U.S. and the Australian dollars, the kiwi dropped to nearly a 4-month low of 0.6366 and more than a 5-week low of 1.0841 from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6408 and 1.0775, respectively. If the kiwi extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 1.73 against the euro, 73.00 against the yen, 0.62 against the greenback and 1.10 against the aussie.

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Oversupply may saturate oil market, says IEA

Oversupply may submerge the overall crude oil market until at least in the latter part of 2016 due to increasing supply and unusual warm weather. Based on the International Energy Agency's monthly report, such factors could push oil prices lower than its present 12-year troughs. It also warned of more price declines ahead. Also, the IEA said oil supply worldwide could surpass demand by 1.5 million barrels per day in the first half of the year, with Iran adding 600,000 bpd by mid-2016 and other nations keeping current output. Brent futures LCOc1, sliding below $30 a barrel, have hit its lowest level since late 2003 after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided not to reduce output to stop the price decline amid oversupply.


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Fitch: Rising Interest Rates to Ease Taiwan Life Insurers' Negative Spreads

Fitch Ratings says in a new report that a persistent decline in the costs of insurance liabilities and improvements in recurring investment yields on rising market interest rates will reduce Taiwanese life insurers' negative interest spreads. However, the Sector Outlook remains Negative as Fitch expects that the high guaranteed rates of legacy policies will still constrain the sector's profitability at least in the near term. Life insurers' costs of insurance liabilities have been dropping by about 10 bp per year with inflows of low-guaranteed-rate policies. Fitch estimates that large insurers have lower funding costs at below 3.5% after including mortality/morbidity and loading gains, versus above 4.5% for some small insurers. Rising interest rates would help improve returns from life insurers' assets, which have shorter duration than their insurance liabilities. Asset risk is the key concern in the life sector, as life insurers have taken significant overseas investments at 55.7% of invested assets at end-August 2015. They are increasingly involved in corporate bonds, financial debentures and sovereign bonds of emerging markets, shifting from treasuries and agency bonds issued by developed countries. Their capitalisation, therefore, is vulnerable to unfavourable movements in the capital and currency markets. For non-life insurers, their Stable Sector Outlook is supported by strong capital buffers and satisfactory underwriting performance, with combined ratios generally below 95%. Non-life insurers' aggregate equity-to-assets ratio was 32% at end-August 2015. They had also accumulated claims equalisation reserves of 13% of total assets by end-2014. The sector's underwriting leverage remains low, at around 1x between 2011 and 2014, as measured by net premiums written/shareholders' equity.

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Wall Street slumps to 2014 trough as oil prices hit 2003 lows

Wall Street plummeted as the S&P 500 touched its lowest since October 2014 and US oil prices plunged to 2003 troughs. US crude slid 6.6% as a supply glut affected bearish financial reports, aggravating woes over demand. But a bounce in US oil prices helped counter losses in stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 15,766.74 points, down 1.56%. The Nasdaq Composite ended at 4,471.69, down 0.12%. The S&P 500 settled at 1,859.33, down 1.17%. Also, the CBOE volatility index was at 27.59, up 5.9%.

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Taiwan Dec Jobless Rate Rises More Than Expected

Taiwan's unemployment rate increased more-than-expected December, figures from the Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, or DGBAS, showed Friday. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 3.88 percent in December from 3.84 percent in November. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to climb marginally to 3.85 percent. The number of unemployed people grew to 453,000 in December from 449,000 in the previous month. A year ago, the jobless figure totaled 442,000. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate held steady for the second straight month in December at 58.67 percent. On an unadjusted basis, the unemployment rate came in at 3.87 percent in December, down from 3.91 percent a month earlier.

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China to look after stock traders, says Li

China assures stock market investors the country will uphold their interests to ensure speculators won't benefit at their expense, and that the government is willing to intervene, if necessary. Vice President Li Yuanchao said the administration would improve regulation in order to curb volatility, saying the Chinese market is not yet mature. Both the Hang Seng China and the Shanghai composite indices have wiped out over 15% this year even though the People's Bank of China injected cash into the system to bolster the economy and pull down borrowing costs.


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Treasuries Give Back Ground Amid Global Stock Market Rally

Following the pullback seen in the previous session, treasuries saw some further downside during trading on Friday. Bond prices came under pressure in early trading but managed to regain some ground as the day progressed. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 2.9 basis points to 2.048 percent. With the increase on the day, the ten-year yield climbed further off the three-month closing low set on Wednesday. The continued weakness among treasuries came amid a pickup in risk appetite the helped drive a global stock markets rally. A notable increase by the price of crude oil also reduced the appeal of treasuries, with crude for March delivery jumping $2.66 to $32.19 a barrel. The price of crude added to the $1.18 a barrel increase seen in the previous session to climb back above the $30 a barrel level. On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing that existing home sales rebounded strongly in December after seeing a steep drop in the previous month. NAR said existing home sales jumped 14.7 percent to an annual rate of 5.46 million in December from a rate of 4.76 million in November. Economists had expected sales to climb to a rate of 5.20 million. A separate report from the Conference Board showed a modest decrease by its index of leading economic indicators in December. The Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement is likely to attract attention next week, although the central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged. Trading could also be impacted by reaction to reports on consumer confidence, new home sales, durable goods orders and pending home sales. Bond traders are also likely to keep an eye on the Treasury Department's auctions of two-year, five-year and seven-year notes. The Treasury is due to auction $26 billion worth of two-year notes next Tuesday, $35 billion worth of five-year notes next Wednesday and $29 billion worth of seven-year notes next Thursday.

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Franc Little Changed After Swiss Trade Data

Swiss Federal Customs Administration published foreign trade data for December in the pre-European session on Tuesday at 2:00 am ET. After the data, the Swiss franc changed little against its major rivals. As of 2:01 am ET, the Swiss franc was trading at 1.0993 against the euro, 1.4393 against the pound, 1.0128 against the U.S. dollar and 116.33 against the yen.

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Moody's: China's Pursuit of Growth Target Risks Extending Economic Imbalances

Moody's Investors Service says that maintaining robust economic growth will remain the priority of China's (Aa3 stable) authorities in 2016, but some of the implications of this approach will be credit negative. Moody's notes that China's relatively robust GDP growth of 6.9% in 2015 owed to significant monetary and fiscal stimulus -- reflecting this focus -- which prevented a sharper slowdown from 7.3% in 2014. Policy support in the pursuit of growth targets is likely to persist in 2016, with the credit-negative effect of postponing deleveraging and the reduction of excess capacity. Moody's conclusions were contained in its just-released report on the Government of China, "Government of China: Stimulus Could Prolong Imbalances, a Credit Negative." In the context of equity and currency market volatility and persistent capital outflows, Moody's further notes that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the government to achieve its growth target while steering the economy toward a more balanced structure. While sustainable rebalancing advances one aspect of the authorities' policy agenda, a more rapid process would involve tackling excess capacity in parts of the industrial sector, with negative short-term consequences for the economy and potentially financial stability. In Moody's view, China's authorities will allow the fiscal deficit to widen to around 2.5-3% of GDP in 2016, after 2.7% in 2015 and under 2% in the previous five years, to provide room for policy support. Government debt will rise slightly above 40% of GDP, still in line with similarly rated peers. Moody's concludes that while fiscal and monetary policy supported overall GDP growth last year, they have not raised profitability in those sectors that the economy is rebalancing away from, such as heavy industry. As stimulus continues, it is likely to increase system-wide leverage -- or at least prevent it from falling -- without boosting profitability. This will raise debt serviceability risks.

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OPEC, Russia discuss likely joint action on supply glut

Senior OPEC and Russian officials talked over a potential joint act to resolve one of the worst supply gluts in decades. But Saudi Arabia implied its stance to letting the oil market rebalance itself. OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said other producers should cooperate in order to settle oversupply for prices to recuperate. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries previously said it would only consider reducing output if others pledge to do so. So far, Russia has refused to collaborate, saying its fields and weather conditions are not similar to those in the Gulf region even as prices below $30 a barrel are way below what they need to break even.


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Federal Reserve leaves rates unchanged, accounts market selloff

The Federal Reserve, acknowledging a stock market selloff, kept interest rates unchanged and would closely monitor global economic and financial improvements, saying it cannot afford to ditch a plan to tighten this year's monetary policy. The decision by the Federal Open Market Committee was widely anticipated following stock markets in the United States and around the globe sustained month-long plunge, raising concerns a sudden global slowdown could dent US growth. In a statement, policymakers, after their two-day meeting, will be looking into the effects of global economic and financial growths in inflation and job market.

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Singapore Employment Logs Slowest Growth Since 2003

Singapore's employment increased at the slowest annual pace in 12 years on sluggish global economic conditions and weak performance of city-state economy, data published by the Ministry of Manpower showed Thursday. Total employment advanced 31,800 or 0.9 percent in 2015, which was the weakest expansion since 2003. In the fourth quarter, total employment grew 15,500 from the previous quarter when it rose 12,600. The ministry said total employment growth has moderated amidst weaker economic conditions and tightened supply of foreign manpower. Further, data showed that local employment increased marginally by an estimated 100 or zero percent in 2015, after growing strongly by 96,000 in 2014. Meanwhile, foreign employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, continued to grow at a moderate pace of an estimated 22,600, or 2 percent in 2015. The jobless rate slid to 1.9 percent in December quarter from 2 percent in September quarter. It was forecast to remain at 2 percent. For the whole of 2015, the annual average unemployment rate was broadly unchanged since 2011, at 1.9 percent.


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New Zealand Money Supply Growth Slows In December

New Zealand's money supply growth eased in December after accelerating in the prior month, figures from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand showed Friday. The broad money supply, or M3, climbed at a slower pace of 8.1 percent year-over-year to NZ$305,985 billion in December, following a 8.4 percent hike in November. In the same month of the preceding year, the rate of increase was 6.3 percent. At the same time, the annual growth in intermediate money supply, or M2, quickened to 14.2 percent in December from 13.7 a month earlier.

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Facebook glides Wall Street higher

The Wall Street soared as Facebook Inc.'s stellar quarterly report bolstered tech stocks higher and a leap in oil prices lifted up the energy sector. The social media company shares surged 15.5%, its largest one-day bounce since 2013, as digital advertising soared 52% in fourth quarter revenue. The S&P tech sector rose 1.48% as Alphabet advanced 4.28%. The S&P energy sector climbed 3.15% as oil prices increased almost 3%. Earnings from Facebook and other companies, as well as oil prices rebound were the forces behind most of the day's improved sentiment. But investors cautioned the accelerations could be short-lived.

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Facebook glides Wall Street higher

The Wall Street soared as Facebook Inc.'s stellar quarterly report bolstered tech stocks higher and a leap in oil prices lifted up the energy sector. The social media company shares surged 15.5%, its largest one-day bounce since 2013, as digital advertising soared 52% in fourth quarter revenue. The S&P tech sector rose 1.48% as Alphabet advanced 4.28%. The S&P energy sector climbed 3.15% as oil prices increased almost 3%. Earnings from Facebook and other companies, as well as oil prices rebound were the forces behind most of the day's improved sentiment. But investors cautioned the accelerations could be short-lived.

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China PMI narrows than projected in January

China's manufacturing sector activity constricted more than predicted in January, weaker than the preceding month. Official figures showed Purchasing Managers' Index settled at 49.4 last month from 49.7 in December. Chinese economic growth skidded to 6.9% in the past year, its slowest expansion in 25 years, pressuring policymakers to renew confidence of traders in the country.

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