Risk markets were down last night, as another talkfest in Europe and Greece pushing back against German interference and a French proposed Tobin Tax irked the risk takers.
In detail:
The UK FTSE lost over 60 points or 1% to finish at 5671 points, now below its resistance level at 5700 points and stagnating. The German DAX fell equally, down 1% or 67 points to 6444, its pre-correction high at 7000 seeming an ever elusive target. The DAX has fallen below its short term trendline, but remains above resistance and its 200 day moving average:
The Euro (EUR/USD) remained above 1.31 against the USD, and is currently trading at 1.3139, as the USD Index regained some strength, rising to 79.3, still below support at 79.6, which is encouraging for risk:
US markets all lost ground, but only just, effectively finishing flat with a late surge (PPT?) in the afternoon. The broader S&P500 Index finished down 3 points or a quarter a percent to 1313 points, still on low volume. The Dow Jones was down 6 points, flat, to 12653 points. Finally, the tech heavy NASDAQ Composite was down 4 points to 2811 points.
According to Bloomberg, US corporate earnings for the 170 companies out of 500 reported so far have risen by 3.1%, but the P/E (price/earnings ratio) remains at 13.7 times, below the long run average of 15 times.
The ever resilient AUD remained above 1.05 against the USD overnight, currently trading at 1.059, and also stayed below 81 cents against the Euro.
To commodities, and WTI crude slipped 0.8% to $98.78USD, whilst gold continues to maintain strength, only losing $1USD an ounce overnight to $1734USD waiting for the open of the Asian session:
Silver had a volatile session, slumping into the London session before rallying to be flat at $33.50USD per ounce on the spot markets. Commodities were weaker than expected, with aluminium up slightly, just above resistance at $1 per lb, copper losing just over 1% and nickel losing 2% on on the London metals market (LME).
The Aussie SPI Futures are pointing to a very flat open for the S&P/ASX200 index, probably opening around the 4270 points level, on these mixed leads. Locally, RP Data/Rismark house price data will be closely scrutinished alongside the very important private credit figures from the RBA.
Trading Day will cover the Asian market session and the “ASX8” stocks after the close in the afternoon.