A strong finish to the week here in Asia with all markets lifting across the region as the Chinese trifecta of economic prints – fixed asset invenstment, industrial production and retail sales – came in pretty much as expected. The USD has fallen further against the majors, save Yen, with the Aussie dollar looking like finishing at a two week high.
The Shanghai Composite is steady going into the close, currently a few points higher at 2685 points. The Hang Seng Index is doing much better, up some 1% higher to 27280 points, after having found a temporary bottom here on the daily chart:
S&P futures however are building here despite Hurricane Florence with the Eurostoxx up by some 0.2% going into tonight’s session. The four hourly chart of the S&P500 shows the boost through short term resistance at the 2890 level as it attempts to close the week at the former high:
Japanese stocks continue their surge higher, with the Nikkei 225 closing up 1.2% to crack the closely watched 23000 points level, setting up for an interesting session next week. The USDJPY pair briefly got above the 112 level before a minor retracement and is sitting pretty here going into tonight’s trade, slightly overcooked so the retracement could extend to the 111.70 level:
The ASX200 was the slowest performer, still putting on runs but nothing impressive, closing 0.6% higher to finish the week out above what could have been resistance at 6150 points, up to 6165 points. The Aussie dollar is treading water here just below the 72 handle vs USD and is poised to make another leg higher, but probably not as far as the other undollars:
The economic calendar finishes the week with a bang – US retail sales for August, industrial production numbers and the closely watched University of Michigan sentiment survey.
Have a good weekend!