by Chris Becker
A quiet start to the week in Asia as several bourses were closed so it was a mixed reaction to Friday night’s NFP print setting the course for the next month and possibly into the Christmas season.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite reopened after the Golden Week break, gapping up 1% but then closing up around 0.7% to 3374 points in a solid signal. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index however dropped down over 0.5% to close at 28307 points, still above local resistance at the 28000 point level as momentum remains overstretched:
S&P futures are relatively steady for a post NFP Monday session, we’re the clear resistance level at 2550 points remains the level to beat tonight:
Japanese stocks start the week with a holiday, so the Nikkei was unchanged. The USDJPY pair suffered from the lack of trade by pushing slightly slower to be right on its four hourly ATR support line at 112.50:
Outside China, the ASX200 was the best performer, closing up 0.5% to 5739 points, still just below the 200 day moving average. The ever lower Aussie dollar is helping here still below the 78 handle proper after big pressure on Friday night. The Friday session low at 77.25 is the target here as traders re-engage following a slew of bad releases last week and the burgeoning USD:
The data calendar starts the week slowly with a few European and German internal figures on industrial production.