By Chris Becker
Remember to read “Trading Week“, published Saturday morning, to put these events and ideas in context.
Its red across the screens today in Asia, as the ASX200 flops 21 points or just over 0.5% to 4042 points, although for context its been oscillating around this level since mid-May:
There was a lot of chatter (noise) about a certain mining magnate buying stock in Fairfax (FXJ) and indeed a big order did come through, but it hasnt done much to arrest the sea of red in the share price:
There wasn’t much to buoy the other Asian markets in terms of data releases or newsflow, as traders reacted to the Spanish and Cyprus debt downgrades, whilst the Reserve Bank of New Zealand signalled continued low rates as growth forecasts were parred back. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.2%, still trying to get out of its funk, the Chinese markets are all down further, with the Hang Seng currently off 0.8%, whilst the Shanghai Comp is down the same too, for now.
Markets are still waiting for a catalyst – any type, bull or bear – and we’ll have to wait to next week I think with the key dates June 17-20 (Greek elections and the FOMC meeting) before a decisive move is made.
On currency markets, there were no real big movers in the majors today, except Pound Sterling which is down against everything (particularly NZD as the RBNZ holds..interesting pair that, will look more closely). The Yen is still trying to work its way above 80 on the USD/JPY pair and not moving, whilst the Aussie also tried to launch itself up again to parity, but is still flat at 99.42 cents against the USD
Gold is also trying to breakout above the key level I identified previously (at $1625USD an ounce) as seen on the chart below, and in AUD terms is at $1627AUD per ounce
Other commodities are steady, although platinum is up over 1%
Finally, in the debt markets today, we saw another big bid for Aussie 10 years, with yields falling over 13 points! Now back to 2.91%
Bond markets have opened in Europe with the only selloffs in the periphery – again – whilst the run on German bunds has stopped for now. Time is running out there methinks.
Tonight
After last nights CPI prints, tonight we get EMU harmonised CPI (-0.2% expected for May), and then US jobless claims, CPI and current account data.
Check out our Economic Calendar here for the rest of this week’s data prints.
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