A mixed start to the week here in Asia with Chinese bourses continuing to tumble on the back of increased rhetoric surrounding the trade spat between the US and China. Taking the air out of this foul wind is the fact that Japanese markets are closed with currency markets relatively sanguine.
The Shanghai Composite is down nearly 1% going into the close, currently at 2656 points, on track once again to test medium term support at the 2600 point level.. The Hang Seng Index is doing even worse, down 1.6% to 26854 points, looking to confirm this retracement after recently finding a temporary bottom here on the daily chart:
S&P futures however are up slightly after Friday night’s mixed session, but it’s still too early to tell, even as the Eurostoxx is not moving. The four hourly chart of the S&P500 shows last Friday nights attempt at reaching the former weekly high didn’t succeed, so watch for a retracement below the 2900 point level closely:
Japanese stocks are closed for a holiday. The USDJPY pair is just below the 112 level but this is not relevant due to th elack of trading volume here. I would contend we should see the low moving average level at 111.80 to be maintained going into tomorrow’s session:
The ASX200 didn’t do too bad considering its satellite status with Chinese markets, rising some 0.3% to start the week higher, closing at 6184 points. The Aussie dollar is treading water here at its Friday night closing level near 71.60 vs USD, not providing any major reason to be long as we start another week of data inflection:
The economic calendar starts the week relatively calmly with US Treasury auctions the only events of note overnight.