by Chris Becker
Its risk off in Asia brought about by another missile launch by North Korea and a run to safe havens like gold and Yen. Most stock markets closed in the red while risk-on currencies like the Aussie dollar and Korean won fell.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite has put in a scratch session up a few points to be at 3365, taking a pause here after its big breakout recently. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is equally down a handful of points for a scratch, closing at 27837 points. No new daily high, so not yet above the previous high earlier in the month just below 28000 points:
Japanese stocks sold off due to the launch and stayed down for most of the day. The Nikkei fell nearly half a percent to close at 19362 points, again remaining below the very firm resistance at the 20,000 point level. The USDJPY pair broke well below the 109 handle first thing this morning but has come back meekly to just under that level going into the European session. US consumer confidence prints tonight might help the USD higher, but having broken through here and with no likely resolution on the Korean peninsula soon, we could be in for another leg down:
S&P futures were down in Asia but are starting to comeback here, still well below what was solid support recently:
The ASX200 has closed 0.7% lower to finish at 5669 points and finally below the 200 day moving average level that had been strong support for so long. All moves from here on in are dependent on the upcoming GDP print and the Korean tensions.
The Aussie dollar has stabilised slightly at the 79.30 mark after a volatile start to the session on the missile launch that saw it dive below the 79 handle proper. Price needs to get back above 79.40, which corresponds to the last two weeks of highs, or we could return to that diving level again:
The data calendar continues tonight with US consumer confidence and house prices.