Its been quite mixed across risk markets in Asia today with Chinese markets and their satellites retreating while Japanese stocks put on gains as Yen weakened considerably in the afternoon session. Traders are positioning for a potential spike in USD on the February CPI print later tonight while commodity prices continued to come off the boil, with oil and gold falling.
The Shanghai Composite is just holding on above the all important 3300 point level, dropping about 0.2% to be at 3319 points going into the close. The Hang Seng Index is doing about the same, down 0.2% at 31532 points, unable to make a dent into new highs as rolling ATR resistance above at the 32000 point level looms:
S&P futures are retracing from last nights mid sessions highs, where the 2800 point level remains the resistance area to beat:
Japanese stocks did well as the Yen sold off, the Nikkei 225 closing 0.5% higher to 21938 points, getting through its midpoint of control and ready to breakout . The USDJPY pair surged strongly this afternoon on the Financial Minister shenigans plus in anticipation of the CPI print with a strong bounce off four hourly support at the 106.30 level. The resistance to beat is quiet obvious here at 107 handle:
The ASX200 took back most of yesterday’s pretty weak gains, falling 0.4% or 21 points lower to 5974, still well shy of the 6000 point barrier. The Aussie dollar is not helping here, continuing to advance against USD as it moves inexorably towards 79 cents against USD, almost hitting a two week high:
The economic calendar ramps up tonight with a big one – US CPI print for February.