Macro Afternoon

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Not a good follow through here in Asia after the surge overnight in US stocks with most markets retreating or putting in scratch sessions. Official Chinese data has yet to be published, but unofficially its all on par or above, and that’s keeping risk markets on standby for now, including US futures which are flat.

In mainland China the Shanghai Composite has continued its advance above resistance at 3400 points, now up 0.3% to 3457 points. The Hang Seng Index has slipped in reaction to the Chinese data however, down 0.15% to 31935 points taking another slight pause on this hot trend:

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S&P futures are lifting slightly but have stalled slightly above 2800 points in anticipation of more earnings reports and the latest housing data:

Japanese stocks retreated again with the Nikkei 225 off nearly 0.5% to 23763 points even as Yen continued to weaken against USD during the session. The USDJPY pair has lifted above rolling ATR resistance after finding a bottom at the 110 handle yesterday. This may be in reaction to the shift in BOJ policy and the increasing bond yields, but for mind its just a short covering reversion to mean play with strong resistance overhead at the 112.30:

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The ASX200 is in a bind here, unable to make any headway and closing with a scratch result just above key psychological support at 6000 points. The iron ore players dragged the bourse down with BHP, FMG and RIO all off another 3% as commodities get a drubbing.

The Aussie dollar wavered at the unemployment print, looking like breaking below its recent trendline but has stuck above support at the 79.60 mark. Tonights reaction to the print will be more telling here so I’m watch the 79.30 level as base support going into The City session:

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The economic calendar gets a bit busier tonight with US housing starts and weekly initial jobless claims, followed by a DOE oil inventory report.