Macro Afternoon

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The impact of the higher USD continues to weigh on developed markets, but the big stock bourses in Asia continued their rebound as futures for European and US stocks advanced. Oil prices are the markets to watch, with WTI hovering around the $70USD per barrel level and Brent above $75 as traders await the Trump decision on Iran.

The Shanghai Composite had another good session today, closing 0.8% higher to 3162 points, ready to tackle the next resistance at the 3200 point level. The Hang Seng Index played catchup, launching over 1.2% higher after yesterday’s scratch session to finish at 30374 points. The shows a lot support at the recent daily opens at 29900 or so but that bearish triangle on the daily chart still pricing in a breakdown to at least 28900:

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S&P futures are slowly ticking up again with the four hourly chart suggesting another attack at last week’s high at 2680 or so:

Japanese stocks brushed off a stalled sale in Yen with the Nikkei 225 lifting 0.2% to finish at 22508 points. Trading in Yen returned back to muted volume with the USDJPY pair retreating slightly below the 109 handle after its failure last night to gain momentum on the Monday Asian session lift:

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The ASX200 was the poorest performer in the region, lifting only 0.1% to close at the 6091 point level, closing in on the next series of highs around 6100 points. The Aussie dollar again failed to continue its recent rebound rolling over and briefly through the 75 handle against USD as the retail sales figures were less than impressive:

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The economic calendar has a few releases to watch out for, namely a speech by Fed Chair Powell in Switzerland, and the German trade balance figures.