Not the expected sea of green here in Asia given the positive mood on Wall Street overnight with most bourses closing down for the day. The USD remains strong against the majors as the PBOC continues to dump the Yuan.
The Shanghai Composite has again closed in the red, slipping 0.3% to close at 2636 points as it heads inexorably to terminal support at 2600 points. The Hang Seng Index is off about the same, nearly 0.4% lower to 26313 points, making another new daily low as its correction continues:
S&P futures however are slowly building here while Eurostoxx futures are indicating a better session tonight compared to last nights scratch efforts. The four hourly chart of the S&P500 is ready to burst through short term resistance at the 2890 level and is likely to make a comeback to the 2900 former high:
Japanese stocks have fallen for the first time this week even as Yen moderated, with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.3% lower at 22604 points, still well above support. The USDJPY pair remains above the 111 handle, but has slowed down as it nears the former midweek high at 111.60 that needs to be breached soon:
The ASX200 had a scratch session after gapping lower at the start, able to claw back most of these gains to fall only a handful of points to 6175 points. The Aussie dollar remains depressed but has not broken down entirely as it bounces along a temporary bottom here, still holding on vainly just above the 71 handle:
The economic calendar has two USD and commodity sensitive releases, the Fed Biege Book and the latest DOE crude oil inventory report.