by Chris Becker
Risk is pulling out the stops here in Asia today with stock markets on fire, the USD resurging in the face of a weak Yen and a falling Aussie dollar due to a neutral RBA. The higher oil price due to the destabilising barbaric Saudi kingdom is helping the risk on mood, but also the mood from Trump’s visit to the region.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite is finally past the long held resistance level at 3400, up over 0.5% to close at 3405 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is doing even better, up 1.4% to just under 29000 points as yesterday’s pause and the recent mean reversion has given the bulls another chance to bid the volatile market even higher:
S&P futures are lifting strongly as algo’s weigh up the risk on mood:
Japanese stocks have now put in a 25 year high with the Nikkei surging 1.7% to be above 22,900 points as its blowoff goes intro stratospheric territory on euphoria. Always a good sign. The USDJPY pair bounced back above the 114 handle after yesterday’s selloff, indicating there’s still strength here but an unwillingness to go back above last weeks high:
So here’s 6000 points for the ASX200! Forget the horse race (who won by the way?) as the ASX200 lifted 1% to close at 6014 points, its highest in nearly 9 years. It was banks all the way, helped along by the iron ore trifecta with Fortescue up nearly 5%, BHP up nearly 4% and RIO up 2%
The Australian dollar briefly sniffed the 77 handle on the RBA print before putting in a soft afternoon session as you can see here on the 30 minute chart. If it breaks local support at the 76.70 level we could be in for a rout as USD bidders move away from the Pacific Peso:
The data calendar continues overnight with two gabfests, the first in Frankfurt with Super Mario and other ECB oligarchs, then in Canada with Governor Poloz giving a speech and then a press conference regarding the Loonie and the economy.