By Chris Becker
Remember to read “Trading Week“, published Saturday morning, to put these events and ideas in context.
Another interesting session on local markets as we away from month end to a printing avalanche of PMI’s. The ASX200 eventually recovered at the end of the session today, but it still finished in the red, down 0.3%, the main culprits being resources, but Telstra (TLS) saw some great bids, up 2.5% for the day.
Well that’s performance you don’t want to write home about – down just under 1% for the year so far. Sure there’s some dividends in the mix there, but so far not a healthy start to 2012 like some were expecting. As I said yesterday, the range between 4030 points and 4120 points is likely to continue. I’m closely watching support at 4025 points or so for a break below.
In other Asian markets, its almost red across the board, with the Nikkei 225 down a full 1.2% – again – but it was more flattish than reddish in Chinese markets, which seems to shrug off the decelerating PMI number. The Hang Seng was up 0.1%, whilst the Shanghai Comp finished flat.
On to the currency markets, the USD has gained slightly and remains above 83 points on the DXY Index, mainly due to Pound weakness, whilst the Aussie was pummelled by our local PMI number, cracking more than half a cent to be well below 97 cents, currently at 96.85 cents. Done all your eBay and overseas shopping yet? I have.
Again, the real move was in Aussie 10 year bond yields hitting another record low – this time at 2.83%, losing 8 points. Japanese ten years gained too, yields falling almost 1 point to 0.8% – yes 0.8% for 10 years.
Gold is remaining weak in the Asian session and is currently at $1557USD per ounce, whilst in AUD terms the shiny “currency” has gained, now at $1608AUD per ounce.
Tonight
The data flow tonight is massive, so take a deep breath. Its a PMI avalanche across Europe (plus Italian and EZ unemployment) with the official US jobs report, unemployment rate, all-important ISM Manufacturing as well. Italian PMI has come out at 44.8, French at 44.7 as I type this.
European stocks have opened mixed, whilst bond markets are also mixed, Spain and Italy again under pressure.
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