by Chris Becker
Asia starts the week with strong upswings on stock markets outside China with bonds also strengthening as Friday’s US CPI print is absorbed by risk and non-risk traders alike. Commodities didn’t lose the pace either with gold holding above the $1300USD per ounce level.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite is slumping going into the close, currently down 0.4% to 3377 points going into the close, still rejecting that key resistance level at 3400 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is soaring – up nearly 1% to be at 28742 points, still above local resistance at the 28000 point level as it breaks higher:
S&P futures are relatively steady slightly lifting as Asia closes:
Japanese stocks continue to do well despite the stronger Yen with the Nikkei up 0.65% to close at 21291 continuing the blowoff and reaching way overbought levels. The USDJPY pair gapped up on the Monday morning open after melting down through to the mid 111 handle on Friday night. The gap has not really sustained itself and hit solid resistance at the 112 level and is likely to retreat later tonight:
The ASX200 is doing well, advancing on its Friday session, closing up 0.6% higher to be at 5846 points and staying well above the 200 day moving average, with the banks doing the heavy lifting although RIO soared nearly 4% higher alongside other iron ore issues too. The Aussie dollar is still surprising to the upside but the Monday morning gap has seen it come back slightly to be at the 78.70 level going into the City open, staying just above the high moving average on the four hourly charts:
The data calendar starts the week slowly with some Treasury auctions this evening and NZ CPI print first thing in the morning.