by Chris Becker
Outside Japan its been a fairly positive day here in Asia with most stock markets advancing following the tepid mood overnight on Wall Street and Europe. The Yen weakened against the USD on the back of Trump’s Afghanistan speech as did Euro while Aussie dollar remained firm.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite is scratching along a few points higher at 3288 as it continues to push higher to reach through key resistance at 3300 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is doing much better, gapping 1% higher to 27418 points, holding well above daily support. This bounce back is finalyl getting some stronger legs as the market confirms broad support at 27000:
Japanese stocks are putting in a scratch session even as Yen weakens a little during the session. The Nikkei closed exactly two points higher at 19395, still confirming the very firm resistance at the 20,000 point level. The USDJPY pair has bounced off and respected the two weekly support zone at just below the 109 handle but is struggling to push higher here at 109.30:
S&P futures are also building indicating a slightly better risk-on mood going into tonights session:
Earnings season continues on the ASX200 with a positive session finally, finishing 0.4% higher to 5749 points, still floating above the 200 day moving average. Bluescope bounced back after its huge selloff yesterday while Seven Group lifted nearly 8% on its positive results including the sale of its Caterpillar division in China.
The Aussie dollar is firming up here, wanting to break above its ascending triangle pattern on the four hourly chart, currently at 79.40 with the moving average band pointing in the right direction:
The data calendar ramps up tonight with the very closely watched German/EU ZEW sentiment survey, followed by the latest house price release in the US.