by Chris Becker
The USD flexed its muscles in the Asian session today, as shares started off mixed on the Samsung Note 7 drama, but came in stronger towards the close.
The Shanghai Composite is making good on yesterdays gains, currently going into the close at 3060 points, up 0.4% and drifting away from terminal support at 3000 that seems to have been an anchor for so long. Conversely, the Hang Seng is off more than 1% alongside Korean stocks as Samsung slumps.
In Japan however, the Nikkei rose almost 1%, now above 17,000 points going into the close which takes it above closely watched resistance and almost above the previous daily high:
This is all because of the Yen, which continues to weaken against the USD, which is all down to the Federal Reserve’s resolve to return to interest rate reality. The USDJPY pair really wants to bus through the 104 handle here and get back to its own previous high:
For the ASX200, it was again a case of heeding resistance at 5500 points with the local market only up a few points to 5482 points, feeling congested here with no signs of confidence.
You’d think the slumping Aussie dollar would help local stocks, but no, as the Pacific Peso falls to 75.50 against the USD making a new low for the week and looking to make new daily or weekly lows soon:
In commodities, WTI just wants to burst free of the $51USD per barrel level, as volumes are low in the Asian session, watch this space tonight in Europe and the US:
The data calendar tonight will focus solely on the Eurozone wide ZEW sentiment survey, with nothing of note from the States.