Another mixed session to end the week here in Asia with most stock markets putting in scratch sessions or minor losses as markets continued to contemplate the changes in personnel at the White House amid growing concerns the Federal Reserve will raise rates again next week. Commodities were little changed while bond yields dropped slightly.
The Shanghai Composite was looking like putting in another scratch session, but closed 0.3% lower at 3281, still shy of the key 3300 point level. The Hang Seng Index did the scratching, barely moving to close at 31529 points, with the daily price still gravitating around the high moving average band, but still unable to breach rolling ATR resistance above at the 32000 point level:
S&P futures are relatively steady but not moving any higher off probable support here at the 2750 point level:
Japanese stocks sold off as Yen strengthened throughout the session, with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.4% lower to 21711 points, still in the middle of its own moving average band and hence range bound. The USDJPY pair fell through the 106 handle again, holding just below that level in what looks like only a temporary reprieve as momentum accelerates to the negative side:
The ASX200 was the best performer in the region, closing 0.4% or nearly 30 points lower to 5949, gaining traction as the Aussie dollar fell. The Pacific Peso continued its overnight falls below 78 cents, although it has recovered slightly in the afternoon, its looking pretty sick here against USD:
The economic calendar closes out the week with US housing starts, industrial production and the closely watched University of Michigan consumer sentiment print.