by Chris Becker
Turgid Tuesday turned into wait and see Wednesday as traders dipped their toes in more risk today following overnight moves in currencies. Gold fell back and USD firmed throughout the session as stocks finally found a bid, absorbing a so-so Chinese manufacturing PMI and awaiting tonights Supreme Court nomination and the ISM manufacturing PMI.
Chinese stock markets, including the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng Index are closed until Friday due to the Chinese New Year.
Japanese stocks are up half a percent or so as the Yen finds some sellers in the session. The Nikkei rose off the mat to close just above 19100 points. The hourly chart for USDJPY shows the temporary bottom firming here off terminal support but unable to breach rolling ATR resistance just yet:
S&P Futures are slowly being bid during the Asian session, coming back to former support now resistance at the 2280 point level:
The ASX200 rebounded after a mixed open, closing up 0.6% with property advertiser Fairfax soaring nearly 6% on a possible buyout. Financials took back most of yesterday’s losses, pushing the broader market up to 5653 points and staving off a wider correction.
The Aussie dollar fell on the Sydney open to support at 75.50 as seen on the hourly chart below as the latest manufacturing PMI disappointed. Its more about the machinations around Trump’s currency manipulation talk, so with the whipsaw between hope and despair overnight, I’m watching support here to hold, or go short on the trendline breakdown:
The data calendar is quiet in Europe and heats up in the US with private payrolls and then the ISM manufacturing print for January.