by Chris Becker
Press that buy button as hard as you can is the clear signal out there as risk takers continue to gobble up stocks across the Asian region, dumping bonds along the way. This has been in response to another overnight record high in US stocks, plus the Chinese credit data surprising on the upside leading to big gains in The Middle Kingdom.
The Shanghai Composite is up over 0.5% after the lunch break to be at 3234 points, building on its recent breakout. The Hang Seng Index is soaring even higher, up nearly 1.5% and casting aside any notion (mine included) of being overbought:
Japanese stocks blasting off again as the Yen falls against USD giving the domestic markets a tailwind. The Nikkei lifted nearly 1% to finish at 19400 points and on track to reach 20,000. The hourly chart for USDJPY shows last night’s surge still holding above the 114 handle where I’m watching the intrasession highs for signs of a breakout:
S&P futures are higher as this big bull prods his horns higher and getting more excited than a Presidential having the hots for his daughter. There’s no upside target here – just BTFD!
The ASX200 soared today, up nearly 1% and clearing the 5800 point level for the first time in nearly 2 years! This was mainly on the back of financials with CBAs record profit helping, putting on 2.3% for the day – headed for $100 a share again? Where or when do I remember that happening previously?
The Aussie dollar climbed a little on the Sydney open still trying to best last Friday’s high at the 76.80 level. We’re now back to the mid point of control so tonights session should see another test of that high as momentum remains positive:
The data calendar tonight has a few prints to watch, the most important being the January CPI number for the US, the G20 finance ministers meeting plus another Congressional meeting for Fed Chair Janet Yellen.