Asian stock markets have reverted to a risk-off attitude mainly due to the forthcoming FOMC meeting tonight or in a very short term reaction to Trump’s extension of his trade war to China, with tariffs likely to ahead on Friday.
The Shanghai Composite had a poor session, closing over 1% lower to 3047 points, accelerating that selloff after the long lunch session, again closing below short term overhead resistance at 3100 points. The Hang Seng Index did about the same, down 1% to close at 30787, closing below the low moving average and almost crossing into negative momentum territory:
S&P futures are flat alongside Eurostoxx, as everyone awaits the FOMC meeting. This is looking like its running out of puff, but I’m positioned either side of this:
Japanese stocks escaped a selloff as Yen buyers stayed away until later in the session. Both the TOPIX and Nikkei 225 closed about 0.4% higher, the latter closing at 22966 points, almost matching the May high. The USDJPY pair made a new intra-week high, reaching the 110.60 level before coming back slightly. Its still above the session highs that formed the bullish ascending triangle on the four hourly chart, and momentum remains intact, so this should still be a bullish signal – but all bets are off with the Fed meeting!
The ASX200 hard a day as bank stocks sold off, most notably CBA which is looking poised to go into a major corrective phase. The bourse finsihed over 0.5% lower at 60230 points as a result. The Aussie dollar is still below the 76 handle in a pause, but still looks set to push well below that level and possibly down to 75 cents proper:
The data calendar is focuses squarely on the FOMC meeting tonight plus we get UK CPI and a DOE inventory report.