Lets check out what happened in detail last night before the open of the local markets – remember to read Trading Week to always put this daily noise in context.
The UK budget was handed down last night although I’m not if that was behind the initial surge on the UK FTSE which then finished flat (maybe because the tax on cigarettes went up? trader’s love cancer sticks) at 5891, the German DAX actually rising, up 0.2% to 7071 points. Other European bourses were weaker overall. Here are the Spanish and Italian bourses for reference, with an interesting short term formation on the FTSE MIB:
The Euro (EUR/USD) was flat gains against the USD to remain at 1.321, the USD Index also flat at 79.6 due to no real moves in the majors.
All eyes on the AUD today, as the flash Chinese manufacturing PMI comes out just after lunch. The Aussie is looking very weak indeed at the start of Asian trading, to be at 1.045 against the USD.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the US bourses were sold off slightly, this time Apple (AAPL) joined in, falling 0.5% to $602 a share.
The S&P500 fell 0.2% to 1402 points as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell slightly more, down 0.3% to 13,124 points.
On to the important debt markets, where US 10 year T-Notes were bid up slightly again, yields easing to 2.3%, with German bonds (bunds) also bid up, falling below 2% again to a 1.98% yield. For reference, Aussie 10 year bonds were bought back after recent sell offs, yields falling just below the cash rate (at 4.25%) to 4.23%
To commodities, where the CRB Index remained steady at 316 points although the short term bearish head and shoulders pattern remains on the daily chart:
Energies were sold off on the cash markets, as WTI crude lost $2.5 a barrel to $105.6USD, whilst Brent crude lost $1.40 to $124.2USD per barrel.
Gold (in USD) had an uneventful night to end slightly up at $1651USD per ounce, hovering around support at the 200 day moving average:
On these relatively mixed leads the S&P/ASX200 index futures point to a lower open, down around 13 points to probably open around 4236 or so.
My Trading Day post will cover the Asian market session and the “ASX8” stocks after the close in the afternoon.
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