by Chris Becker
Happy joy joy in Asia today as stocks go higher on the back of record US highs overnight, as the USD makes new lows due to the failing US domestic agenda that may stifle the Federal Reserve’s want to raise rates sooner rather than later. With the ECB and BOJ meeting this week, the reach for yield continues before either reaches for the rate hike lever or helicopter collective.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite is up over 1% to be back above previous resistance at 3200 points from where it had broken down significantly earlier on the week. This should set it back on track to hit the next resistance level at the 3300 point mark, but probably no higher. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is up 0.5% making good on its recent breakout above 26,000 points:
Despite the Yen remaining strong against USD, Japanese stocks finished in the green today. The Nikkei finished about 20 points or 0.1% higher to again breach the psychological important 20,000 point level. The USDJPY pair is seemingly forming a bottom here at just above the 112 handle as it decelerates from its recent breakdown, as we await the missives of the BOJ:
S&P futures are slowly moving higher, ready to make another new high tonight, dependent on earnings:
The ASX200 came back some today, rising 0.8% to 5732 points on some big short covering on banks as RIO and BHP fell off in line with commodity prices.
The Aussie dollar is very slowly melting higher, remaining above the 79 handle against USD, not making a new low on each successive four hourly candle since the big breakout on the RBA minutes. This equates to a distinct lack of sellers, so the road remains open to the next level of resistance up at the 82 handle:
The data calendar is relatively quiet tonight with the only official release to watch out for being DOE oil inventories for July, plus some housing data, with the real focus on earnings as big hitter Alcoa reports first.