by Chris Becker
Asian markets are not starting the week or new financial year off well as bourses react to another North Korean missile firing. The RBA however held fire at its July interest rate meeting, sending the Aussie dollar down. Tonight will be quieter as the US has the night off for Independence Day holiday.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite is down nearly half a percent going into the close at 3181 points, still unable to breakout above previous resistance at 3200 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is the worst in the region with a big slump selling off 1.5% and breaking through key support at the daily ATR line as the 26000 resistance level looks to be rejected:
Japanese stocks were the “leaders” in Asia today by only falling around 0.2% or so with the Nikkei 225 closing just above 20,000 points, holding on to its previous gains. The USDJPY pair is slowing melting down as it retraces its too-far, too-fast move from last night as expected. The long tail on the most recent four hourly candle suggests it might be over as the low moving average is respected in this uptrend:
S&P futures are steady, but again can be discounted somewhat due to lower volume going into tonights break:
The ASX200 had a wunderbra session, launching nearly 2% today on short covering and the fact the RBA held its guns. Closing 99 points higher and just below the 5800 point level, this will all on the back of the banks again as the 200 day moving average remains respected. What a day!
The Aussie dollar however has slumped, falling straight through intraday support to be just above the 76 handle against USD on the lack of an upside move from the RBA. As it breaks this level, the next target is the previous low at the 75.50 level:
The data calendar continues tonight slowly however as the US take the night off, with only a few lower tier European releases to worry about.