by Chris Becker
Stocks in Asia were generally positive today with a retreating USD helping as well, as turmoil surrounding geopolitical tensions in Korea and Turkey simmered today. A lack of catalyst economic prints is also smoothing the volatility across the region.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite really wants to climb up through resistance at the 3400 point level, and almost got there today before closing up 0.2% higher at 3387 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index had a scratch session and failed to close higher, stuck at 28473 points, but still above local resistance at the 28000 point level:
S&P futures are relatively steady were support and resistance remain very clear on the four hourly charts:
Japanese stocks continue to do well despite the stronger Yen with the Nikkei up another 0.3% to close out at 20881 . After breaking down yesterday, the USDJPY pair is moving very slowly sideways in the Asian session, hovering just above the 112.40 level, still below previous ATR support:
The ASX200 finally had a good session and lifted 0.6% to close at 5772 points, well above my target of 5750 and the 200 day moving average which now signals a bullish move higher. The Aussie dollar continues to surprise with a nice run this morning briefly above the 78 handle, but I still contend there doesn’t look to be much momentum from here on the lower timeframes:
The data calendar is finally getting interesting with the release of the previous Federal Reserve minutes.