Macro Afternoon

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Quite a mixed day out here in Asia in response to Trump’s new battle in the ongoing trade war he seems to want to have with US allies, with most stock markets finishing the week in the red. Risk is increasing as traders gear up for the all important NFP later tonight, with currency and bond markets increasing in volatility.

The Shanghai Composite gave back nearly have of its previous gains, falling 1% to close at 3065 points. The Hang Seng Index had a slightly better time of it, only falling about 0.2% to 30422, still remaining above off daily ATR support at 30000 proper. On the upside, its still below the series of lower highs from the early May breakout so we’re slowly coming to a breakout here:

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S&P futures are holding here but that arrow/wide triangle pattern building on the four hourly chart is literally pointing to something happening tonight!

Japanese stocks have come away with just a scratch – literally with the Nikkei 225 falling only 0.14% to close at 22171, still forestalling what looks like a full correction. The USDJPY pair however has broken out of its tight trading range to be above the 109 handle going into the European session, perhaps presaging a bullish USD trend tonight:

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The ASX200 has again slipped below the key 6000 point barrier, closing 0.4% lower at 5990 points, again looking weak here across all timeframes. The Aussie dollar should’ve helped as it brokedown at the midpoint of the session, falling below the low moving average as USD strengthened to currently be at the low 75’s:

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The big event on the calendar is US unemployment for May, or non-farm payrolls (NFP) so come Monday we should have a better idea of the direction of risk markets overall, which I’ll go over in my Trading Week special.

Have a good weekend!