Macro Afternoon

Advertisement

by Chris Becker

Stocks in Asia are mixed while emerging markets are enjoying a rally due to the declining USD. Commodity markets are equally volatile with Dalian off but not engaging the usual correlation with Australian mining stocks as both oil and gold prices fall off before the London open.

The Shanghai Composite is just floating above a nominally positive session after the long lunch break, currently at 3256 points, only up 0.18% and unable to build momentum above local support at 3200 level. The Hang Seng Index is up a similar amount, just above 24560 points, holding above the 24000 points resistance level but looking a little overstretched here. A pullback to the high moving average would be more healthy for this rally to continue and suck in more buyers:

HSI.fsDaily

Japanese stock markets returned from their holiday in a dour mood with the Nikkei closing down 0.3% to 19461 points, still stuck in a tight support/resistance zone as Yen remains strong. The domestic currency firmed quickly on the Tokyo open but has taken back those gains and then some in recent hours with the USDJPY back up to 112.75 but unable to breach Monday’s intraday high:

Advertisement
USDJPYH1

S&P futures are slowly building off of support at the 2370 point mark, but this is not vey optimistic:

S&P.fsH4
Advertisement

The ASX200 closed down a couple points to eke out a scratch session, basically unchanged at 5774 points. Financials were essentially unchanged while iron ore heavyweights BHP and RIO both dropped around 1% each. Resistance at 5800 points is the key are to watch on the upside here.

The Aussie dollar finally lost its mojo, cracking below the 77.20 level on the hourly chart and playing with the 77 handle proper against USD:

AUDUSDH1
Advertisement

The data calendar continues with a litany of Federal Reserve speeches, with two tonight widely spread out but both likely to have an impact on currency and bond markets. In Europe beforehand there’s the UK CPI print for February for Pound traders.