by Chris Becker
The positive lead from overnight as US stocks make new record highs has translated into further gains here in Asia today. The catalyst for this risk on mood is a lower than expected insurance bill from Hurricane Irma and a falling Yen and other safe havens returning cash to risk managers as Korean tensions continue to ease.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite is lifting steady at the close, basically unchanged at 3379 points as it fails again to rise above resistance at 3400 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is pretty much in the same situation, up a handful of points and unable to build on its breakout yesterday, still below its own resistance level at 28000 points:
Japanese stocks continue to surge with the Nikkei rallying again, up another 1% to finish at 19776 points, poised to break above 20,000 points anytime soon. This is all due to the Yen with the USDJPY pair slowly melting higher after its recent big bounce, now at 109.60 and respecting local support:
S&P futures are steady after last night’s solid move higher and may consolidate here as the economic calendar is light on:
The ASX200 had another solid session zooming higher on the open and staying there all day to finish up 0.6% at 5746 points and remaining above the 200 day moving average. CBA was a big winner again on short covering, up over 2% while the iron ore trifecta all lifted in unison.
The Aussie dollar is having a beautiful retracement, right down to ATR support at the 80 handle from where it looks like bouncing already as we go into the London session. I’m targeting the Monday morning gap down level at the 80.60 zone here:
The data calendar only has one release to watch out for tonight with UK CPI printing for August.