By Chris Becker
It’s hard to be a bear in this risk environment, when economic news comes in above or at already high expectations. Friday night’s non-farm payroll numbers gave a splendid headline number, and a month long reason for the bulls to bid up stocks across the risk complex. The USD retreated against the majors and Treasuries sold off, again reinforcing the risk-on meme as US stocks put on their best week in over a year. With a slew of Asian companies reporting earnings this week on high expectations of profit upgrades, whats to stop the blowoff here in Asia?
Looking at the longer term view on stock markets first, the Shanghai Composite wants to join the party, having broke out last week and surging up to but not above resistance at the 3400 point level. Note how price action is exhausting itself on each daily candle, so I expect a small retracement to start the week here. The SSEC remains in a secular bear market, still licking the wounds from its last bubble:
