Stock markets were once again mixed here in Asia with Japanese markets advancing in anticipation of the BOJ meeting tomorrow. Risk is positioning for tonight’s ECB rate meeting with the advancing USD cooling off during the session.
The Shanghai Composite took back most of its recent gains by falling nearly 1.4% to 3075 points, once again on its way down to terminal support at the 3000 point mark. The Hang Seng Index lost a cool 1% to close just above support at the 30,000 level. This definitively breaks the uptrend line from the February low and sets up a potential return there as momentum accelerates to the negative side:
S&P futures are retracing not giving much of an indication of direction for tonights open as tech stocks are still providing a tailwind to risk taking here:
Japanese stocks started out well and held on to most of their gains even as Yen strengthened slightly against USD with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.5% higher to 22319 points. The USDJPY pair had been well overbought, and as expected paused slightly here above the 109 handle in anticipation of tomorrows BOJ meeting:
The ASX200 slipped slightly, falling 0.2% to 5910 points, still holding above the psychologically important level at 5900 points, but banks remain under pressure. The Aussie dollar continued to find a bottom just below the 76 handle against USD, trying to get back into the lower portion of its daily downtrend channel:
The economic calendar has one major release to watch out for that is stock and currency sensitive- the ECB policy meeting, followed by a pair of big US releases, namely advanced trade goods and durable goods.