by Chris Becker
Stocks are mixed in Asia with the poor lead from European and US stocks not translated across the region. Japanese stocks are higher as the Yen remains weak against the US dollar, closing up 0.3% and breaking free of daily resistance:
On the other hand Chinese stocks are off following the PMI print at lunchtime with the Shanghai Composite down nearly 0.5% although the Hang Seng is up 0.6% going into the close. Reflecting the net effect of these gains and losses, Eurostoxx futures are flat going into the London session.
The ASX200 is still falling, down 0.3% to 5415 points, continued to be dragged down by resource/gold stocks with BHP off nearly 3% for the second day in a row, Newcrest off 2% on the lower gold price and RIO down just over one percent.
In currencies, its all about trading the Yen, with the USDJPY pair maintaining above the 103 handle while Aussie dollar bounced back a little against USD, currently at 75.40 and putting in a small swing long play that I think won’t have legs with resistance very closeby:
The data calendar is a bit quieter tonight with UK manufacturing PMI the only one to watch in Europe while in the US its initial jobless claims followed by the ISM manufacturing print. Almost there – tomorrow night is NFP!