Another generally positive day here in Asia with most stock markets putting in solid gains following the lead of Wall Street overnight. Aussie stocks were the exception as the RBA held with the Aussie dollar only retreating slightly from its big runup in the previous session. The USD is holding against the majors going into the European session with the focus tonight on ECB President Mario Draghi’s speech in Frankfurt a possible catalyst.
The Shanghai Composite put in a great session, rising 0.7% to close at 3114 points, as all the bears are taken out after a brief touch at terminal support at 3000 points previously. The Hang Seng Index gapped again on the open but only put on relatively small gains, lifting 0.3% to breach the 31000 point level. This keeps it well abovethe downtrend line from the previous dip, and the high moving average on the daily chart, thus setting up for a return to the former high at 31700 or so:
S&P futures are flat here, just holding on slightly above long held resistance at 2740 points which remains tentative support for this breakout:
Japanese stocks were flat as well despite the higher USDJPY with the Nikkei 225 closing only 0.25% higher at 22539, but still looking quite positive on the daily chart. The USDJPY pair is floating along nicely here on the four hourly chart, still above the high moving average with quite positive momentum, so we should see it hit the 110 level soon:
The ASX200 was cut down on the RBA hold, closing 0.5% lower to 5994 points, reinforcing my view that it looks weak as the banking sector fails to do the heavy lifting. The Aussie dollar decelerated going into the RBA meeting and was basically unchanged, finding the 76.30 level against USD as support and just above low moving average on the four hourly chart. I’m watching below that tonight for any signs of a potential reversal:
