A poor trading session across stock markets in Asia to finish the trading week in the red, despite a late bounce on Wall Street overnight. The continued strength of the USD due to the fallout of the recent US hot CPI print is still being felt via spikes in bond yields across the world. The Australian dollar is failing to rebound after its 100 pips plus reversal as it retraces back to the 65 cent level this afternoon.
Oil prices are holding firm after absorbing fufrther volatility with Brent crude still well above previous weekly resistance at the $90USD per barrel level while gold is pushing higher after a very minor slowdown, currently at the $2384USD per ounce level:
Mainland and offshore Chinese share markets are still quite divergent with the Shanghai Composite putting in a scratch session while the Hang Seng Index is in reversal mode again, down more than 1.6% to 16805 points. Japanese stock markets are the only ones to put runs on the board, with the Nikkei 225 up more than 0.4% at 39565 points with the USDJPY pair holding on to its recent gains at just above the 153 level:
Australian stocks are unable to move higher, with the ASX200 about to close 0.4% lower at 7779 points while the Australian dollar is failing to lift itself off the floor after the big CPI reversal, hovering just above the 65 cent level:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are in hesitation mode as we head into the London session with European shares probably playing catchup to last night’s rebound on Wall Street. The S&P500 four hourly chart shows price action still in a technical downtrend through a series of steps as it fails to recover from short term resistance:
The economic calendar finishes the trading week with German inflation and the latest Michigan consumer sentiment numbers.