The BOJ meeting came and went without any surprises this afternoon, easing concerns for Japanese stocks while Chinese issues continue to lift higher despite the falls on Wall Street overnight. Local stocks suffered due to the breakdown in the BHP offer while the USD continues to pullback with the Australian dollar lifting further above the 65 cent level.
Oil prices are seeing some upside with Brent crude trying to push above the $89USD per barrel level while gold is still struggling to recover from its recent rough retracement, finishing just below the $2340USD per ounce level this afternoon:
Mainland and offshore Chinese share markets are heading in the same direciton with the Shanghai Composite up more than 1% to get back above the 3100 point level while the Hang Seng Index has soared over 2% higher to 17650 points, finishing its strong performance this week. Japanese stock markets are doing better after the BOJ meeting with the Nikkei 225 up nearly 0.9% to 37934 points with the USDJPY pair breaking out to almost cross the 156 level:
Australian stocks were the odd ones out with a down session due to the BHP decision with the ASX200 finishing more than 1.3% lower at 7575 points while the Australian dollar is lifting further above the 65 cent level late in afternoon trade to fill all of last week’s dour move lower:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are up at least 0.5% this afternoon as we head into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action getting out its small correction, possibly finding a bottom here at the 5000 point zone:
The economic calendar finishes the week with the latest US PCE price index followed by the Michigan consumer sentiment survey.