Macro Afternoon

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A generally positive day across Asia to start the trading week. The USD advanced against the major currencies and gold, helping inversely correlated Japanese stocks while local shares floundered.

The Shanghai Composite is up nearly 1% or about 25 points at 3215, finally out of the shadow of very strong overhead resistance at 3200 even, giving the impetus for a crack at 3300. The Hang Seng Index is doing about the same, up 0.9% to 31332 points. This is looking better than last week’s late crack and rejection of overhead ATR resistance so watch the previous high at 31400 for signs of a filled breakout opportunity:

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S&P futures firmed on the Monday morning gap higher but are steady here going into the City open, but can US stocks get out of their recent sideways funk?

Japanese stocks continue to be the bright spark as Yen was weak again. The Nikkei 225 is 0.3% higher to just crossover 23000 points, starting to put on some gains on the longer term charts. The USDJPY pair has gapped higher and back to last Friday’s high at the 111 handle, before accelerating later in the session, now at 111.30 and looking a bit overcooked:

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The ASX200 continues to form an ominous double bearish top on the daily charts, still unable to make any new highs above the 6150 points level, falling a couple points to 6085. The Aussie dollar is floating here just above the 75 handle and right in the middle of its moving average band on the four hourly charts, where breakouts and breakdowns are the only game to play in the short term:

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The economic calendar starts the week slowly with a slew of US Treasury auctions but not much else tonight.