Macro Afternoon

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Asian shares reliably reacted negatively to the late overnight activity after the new Trump threats to China trade with a big impact on tech stocks. The race to safe havens saw USD rise against the majors, even Yen although that was related to positive news coming out of North Korea.

The Shanghai Composite closed 1.4% lower to 3122 points, in a broad selloff as expected, threatening key support just below. The Hang Seng Index fell even further, down 1.7% to 30270 points. Support at 30,000 is still firm here on the daily chart but again is coming under tremendous pressure and is likely to breakdown if tonights session on Wall Street is not positive:

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S&P futures are not showing that it will positive, with price hovering just above the 2600 point level as the four hourly chart shows clearly:

Japanese stocks sold off as expected, with the Nikkei 225 down 1.3% to 21031 points, taking back half of its previous gains. This keeps it back above tentative support at 21000, and very close to a failure break here. Yen firmed slightly on the morning session before selling off on the North Korean news with the USDJPY pair pipping back above the mid 105s. The price action on the four hourly chart is setting up for a potential upside breakout here, but not yet confirmed where I’m looking at the 105.80 level:

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The ASX200 sank at the open and stayed there all day to fall 42 points or 0.7% to 5789 points, as it returns to the February lows and setting up for a much wider correction. The Aussie dollar has broken through last week’s low and right through the 77 handle to 76.60 or so, setting up for falls down to 75 cents:

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The economic calendar continues tonight with two big ones out of the ‘States, namely advanced trade goods for February plus quarterly GDP.