by Chris Becker
Definitely risk off here in Asia today to finish the week on a low as stocks follow the poor overnight lead coming from the Spanish terrorist attack and the derailed Trump administration. Safe havens are the destination for hot money with gold, Yen and bonds rising.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite is the only stead bourse, currently unchanged at 3266 as it tries and fails to reach up to resistance at 3300 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is off 0.6% down to 27192, holding above daily support at 27000 points. This bounceback remains weak so far and the Hang Seng needs to get above the high moving average band at 27450 or so soon to arrest this dip:
Japanese stocks are the hardest hit as the Yen zooms to new highs. The Nikkei closed 1.2% lower at 19461 points confirming the very firm resistance at the 20,000 point level. The USDJPY pair is slowly pushing its way down to last week’s low, remaining below the 110 handle as the weaker USD from the Trump chaos combines with general risk-off mood:
S&P futures are very meek here as yesterday’s new daily low and close below the critical uptrend line at 2440 points needs to be exceeded tonight or we could see a wider selloff next week:
The ASX200 did its usual snap reaction at the open to the overnight selloff, and recovered a little during the day as volume dried up. It finished about 0.6% lower to 5747 points, still barely hanging on above the 200 day moving average and continuing to look very weak in this never ending sideways move.
The Aussie dollar bounced back ever so slightly in the Asian session, stalling however here at the 78.90 level against USD. The level to beat is the high moving average at the 79 handle proper, but the short and medium term is against the Aussie bulls here:
The data calendar finishes the week with a whimper, Canadian CPI and an oil rig count the only releases of note.