by Chris Becker
A very slow day in Asia as volumes retreat in anticipation of the UK and US holidays tonight, while mainland Chinese markets were closed, currency markets are in a holding pattern.
In China the Shanghai Composite was closed while the Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index barely ticked up to remain just over 25000 points in what looks like an exhaustive rising wedge pattern on the daily chart:
Japanese stocks were unchanged, with a mild selloff on the Nikkei as Yen strengthened ever so slightly on low volumes. The Nikkei finished just four points lower at 19682, still just below key resistance at 20,000 points. The USDJPY pair gapped higher on the open, but retreated to be just above the 111 handle with price gravitating around the lower moving average an indication the Yen bulls are still in charge:
S&P futures are obviously and basically unmoved due to tonights holiday:
With no direction, lead or anyone holding its hand, the ASX200 sold off to start the week down 0.8% to 5707 points, well below local resistance at 5800 points. This was mainly due to Megabank with all four major divisions off at least 1% or more, while the iron ore triumvarate were similarly hit with Fortescue off over 3%
The Aussie dollar retreated in kind, heading back to last week’s intrasession low at just above the 74 handle agaisnt USD. This is looking ominous leading up to Friday’s non-farm payrolls but before that the Chinese manufacturing PMI on Wednesday which could be too large a hurdle for the Pacific Peso:
The data calendar tonight is fairly empty due to the UK and US holidays although Mario Draghi will give a closely watched speech to the European Parliament tonight.