Asian Market Update:

Asian Market Update: Asian stocks have mostly moved higher, but with mainland China continuing to underperform and gains elsewhere pretty modest. Positive vaccine news and the start of the transition to a Biden administration including the prospect of former Fed head Yellen as Treasury Secretary helped markets to move higher again at the start of the week. However, as markets remain poised for a strong gain this month, there seems to be little appetite to push things further out ahead of the Fed minutes and amid signs that while the outlook is improving, current virus developments are likely to lead to ongoing and even further restrictions in the short run. Topix and Nikkei are currently up 0.3% and 0.5% respectively. The Hang Seng has gained 0.4%, the ASX 0.6%, but the CSI 300 is down -0.9% and TAIEX, Kospi and Nifty are also in negative territory. Treasuries were sought and the U.S. 10-year rate dropped back -0.7 bp to 0.87% overnight. Long rates in New Zealand and Australia continued to climb with the RBNZ once again playing down the prospect of negative rates and against the background of fears of a housing bubble that the central bank may have to address. In FX markets the dollar strengthened and USD-JPY dropped back to 104.51. The front end WTI future meanwhile continues to trade slightly above the USD 45 per barrel m