by Chris Becker
Asian markets start the week with a sea of red on stock markets, as smart money headed for the havens like Yen and bonds as oil tried to rebound following Friday nights rout.
The Japanese Nikkei fell over 1% as the Yen firmed against the USD, the former coming up against support at the lower bound of its trend channel on the daily chart:
Chinese stocks also slumped with the CSI300, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite all down 1% or so, the latter just clinging on to terminal support at 3000 points going into the close. Watch this one carefully!
As for the ASX200, it was a scratch session with a rally into the close bringing everything square to finish at 5430 points, with swings in bank stocks offset by falls in resources, namely on the back of lower oil and gold prices.
Eurostoxx and S&P500 futures are down 0.6% going into the London session.
Speaking of gold, it slipped below support during the Asian session but I would discount this until we get the London fix in an hour or so, where overhead resistance at $1340USD per ounce is likely to stall any rally on uncertainty:
In currencies, not much action, with the Aussie dollar the one to watch as it firms at support at the 76 handle against USD. The downtrend evident on the hourly chart since the Thursday night high is pushing the point of control ever closer, so we should see a break either side soon:
The data calendar ramps up tonight with the German IFO survey and a speech by ECB President Mario Draghi to the EU with US new home sales for August later in the session.