Macro Afternoon

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Risk markets lifted all across Asia, starting the week on a strong point. This has yet to translate to higher futures on European or US stocks, but the mood should be optimistic going into the City open. The USD remains slightly weaker from its reversal late last week, as all eyes are on further trade tensions with China and the US.

The Shanghai Composite is still unable to breach the next resistance level at 3200 points, basically unchanged to finish at 3161 points. The Hang Seng Index is having a better start to the week, closing 1% higher to finish at 3147 points, gapping higher and almost reaching trailing daily ATR resistance overhead:

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S&P futures are flat but the cash market is ready to build here again with the four hourly chart on track to get to the former high at 2800:

Japanese stocks had a solid, using the weakness in Yen to lift higher, the Nikkei 225 closing up 0.5% to finish at 22865 points, breaking out of its recent sideways funk.. The USDJPY pair moved higher in the later half of the session, now at the mid 109’s and ready to tackle the 110 handle:

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The ASX200 did fairly well, taking in the rising AUD by finishing 0.3% higher at 6135 points. The Aussie dollar was unable to build on Friday night’s gains, coming back to the low 75’s against USD. I’m watching the low moving average level here at 75.30 or so for signs of a return to the dominant trend:

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The economic calendar starts the week very slowly with a roundtable of talks by ECB bureaucrats and not much else.