by Chris Becker
Another poor session here in Asia with most stock markets off again as risk seems to be off the able in prepositioning for a slew of key economic prints and central bank talkfests in the coming sessions.
In mainland China the Shanghai Composite was down over half a percent before lunch, before recovering somewhat to be only off 0.25% towards the close, at 3439 points. The Hong Kong based Hang Seng Index is putting in a scratch session, up only a handful of points to 29205 as its current trajectory seems to be reaching an apex here on the daily chart:
S&P futures have retreated a little on the mixed session in Asia, still stuck between a tight band of resistance and support at 2585 and 2575 points:
Japanese stocks are mixed with the Nikkei up slightly while the broader TOPIX fell an equal amount. The former is up 0.2% to 22427 points as it tries to claw out of what could be a much wider correction. The USDJPY pair has been positive throughout the session and possibly broken its near week long downtrend here, getting above the high moving average on the four hourly chart, poised to go further here at 113.60:
The ASX200 slumped today on the back of the drop in the Aussie dollar overnight, plus the potential for a new federal election, closing almost 1% lower to 5966 points. The losses were shared equally among banks and miners for a change.
The Australian dollar is desperately trying to fight back after collapsing through ATR support at the 76.40 level and almost touching the 76 handle last night. Its bounced back here but doesn’t look like it has the strength to get back above that level, and will probably suffer amid the central bank turmoil tonight and this week:
The data calendar is packed tonight with German and Italian 3Q GDP prints, followed by the UK October CPI print which could weigh significantly on the BOE’s next decision. We stay in Europe (kind of) as the German ZEW survey comes down amid the EZ GDP print plus a roundtable of discussion of central bankers in Frankfurt. There’s more Fedtalk overnight too with a few speeches to watch out for…oh I wish I didn’t have to sleep – so many opportunities here!