Another green board across Asian share markets today as the positive Wall Street lead kept risk buttons flicking on the on switch. Treasuries and sovereign bonds remain less favourable in the wake of the ECB language regarding its QE program while commodities were relatively steady although the Brent/WTI gap remains wide.
The Shanghai Composite has put in yet another scratch session, climbing just a handful of points to close at 3116, where it started well but finished with a lack of confidence. The Hang Seng Index has gapped higher again, lifting some 0.6% and climbing well above the 31000 point level at 31463. This is looking even more unsustainable as it races ahead to the former high at 31700, a pullback to the high moving average is to be expected:
S&P futures are building here, now indicating a strong session later tonight (again, watch Tesla – up 9% since I mentioned it…cough):
Japanese stocks did a lot better than expected with a slipping USDJPY not supposed to support such a move, the Nikkei 225 closing about 0.8% higher at 22823, really building positively on the daily chart. The USDJPY pair has slipped back to the uptrend line, breaching the low moving average on the four hourly chart, now dicing with the 110 handle and potentially forming a bearish rounding top:
The ASX200 had a solid day again, lifting some 0.5% to finish well above 6000 at 6057 points, again not helped by banking stocks with materials and energy doing the heavy lifting. The Aussie dollar seems to have peaked here, pulled back to the mid point of the moving average channel at the 76.50 level against USD. Even though it has surpassed the early week session high, this is to be expected, with a retracement as low as the 76 handle possible:
The data calendar tonight only has some mid level tier releases, namely German factory orders and initial jobless claims in the US.