by Chris Becker
The Korean troubles are turning the risk mood straight off in Asia with the Yen appreciating against everything on the safe haven bid. Stocks are down across the region, save Australia, while bonds were bid alongside gold.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite has closed down 10 points or 0.3% lower to 3271 points as it fails again to breach the next obvious resistance at the 3300 point level. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is off nearly 0.5% as its rally pauses here:
Japanese stocks lost the most, with the Nikkei off nearly 1.3% as the Yen strengthened appreciably against USD, cracking well below the 20,000 point level. The USDJPY pair has dropped straight through to the 110 handle breaking below the low moving average level and dropping below last week’s session low:
S&P futures are down 0.3% with volatility breaking out significantly, moving into tonights session:
The ASX200 is the standout in the region, up 0.4% to 5765 points with CBA recovering its money laundering losses lifting 0.5% to be back above $81 per share while other banks helped with the heavy lifting. The iron ore trio also lifted around 0.7% even as iron ore prices subsided.
The Aussie dollar has fallen down to a three week low breaking through tentative support at 78.70 against USD. There’s been a small rebound in the last couple hours on the oversold move and could cluster here going into what should be a volatile session tonight:
The data calendar continues tonight with the OPEC meeting coming to a close at the same time as DOE oil inventories are reported.