by Chris Becker
A broadly positive day in stock markets across Asia, as the USD firms against the major exporters, and oil prices stabilise, stabilising the risk outlook somewhat. The Shanghai Composite continues its holiday with the Hong Kong Hang Seng up 0.5%, building on previous gains, while in Japan, the Nikkei also closed up 0.5% to just under 17,000 points building as the Yen continues to weaken appreciably against USD.
This level is a solid resistance point going forward as it bounces off its trend channel bottom, with all eyes on Yen required:
Morgan Stanley consider the bottom is in for USDJPY which is a big call considering the huge uptrend in Yen since the start of the year, once at nearly 125, down to below 100 and only up a few percent now – but that’s a significant break on the weekly chart:
For the ASX200, it was a solid day, up 0.5% but still unable to get above resistance at 5500 points as resource and energy stocks pushed the boat higher. I contend we’re in a holding pattern here until Friday nights NFP and indeed down under risk maybe disappating as the arse falls out of the Australian dollar (yes, that’s a technical term):
Not a good look on the hourly chart as the selloff accelerates going into the London session, we’re I’m targeting 75.50 and then possibly down to support at 74.40 or so.
The data calendar tonight has German factory orders and US initial jobless claims to worry about, with no Fed/ECB speeches in between thankfully.