by Chris Becker
Asia is mixed to say the least with a weak USD against the Yen buoying Japanese stocks, but Chinese bourses are selling off due to continued falls in commodities, namely iron ore and oil. The tension on the Korean peninsula continues to play a part as does the return of risk traders from the long Easter weekend. With no new economic news to go on, volatility continues to remain high.
In China, the Shanghai Composite is selling off going into the close, down 0.4% to 3208 points in conjunction with the iron ore complex. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng is off twice that, down 0.8% to just about 24000 points as it heads towards trailing ATR support zone at 23700:
Japanese stocks have put on a small show of good fortune, with the Nikkei closing up 0.3% as Yen sold off slightly against USD, but the market is still remaining below key support at 19000 points. The USDJPY pair has tried to build on its gains yesterday, but refuses to head substantially above the 109 handle in what looks like short term positioning before the London open:
S&P futures are starting to move slightly higher in response to Japanese stocks in the main:
The ASX200 tanked on the long weekend open, falling nearly 1% and staying down there to finish at 5836 points. This was again due to big falls were the iron ore extractors with BHP and RIO off 2%, while Fortescue was down another 7% as iron ore prices fell again following Mondays slump.
The Aussie dollar dropped as expected on the open, fulfilling its destiny as the bearish rising wedge pattern worked (for once!) It was all about the RBA minutes (and iron ore), which have turned dovish (or have they?) Although its fallen below the 76 handle against USD, its yet to crossover into negative momentum so we could see a small bounce back later tonight:
The data calendar tonight is relatively quiet with secondary/tertiary housing and other minor reports from the US.