Stocks are quite mixed across the region, with currency markets providing extra volatility too as the RBA meeting took the floor out underneath the Aussie dollar. The USD is reasserting itself against everything again, with the Kiwi also making a new weekly low. Reaction to the “new” NAFTA will be interesting tonight on American markets but the focus on the disastrous Brexit plans will also come into view in Europe as well.
The Shanghai Composite was closed again today for a holiday. The Hang Seng Index is down nearly 2% to 27218 points, unable to climb above overhead ATR resistance. There was potential here, but the medium term downtrend showed the way before todays downturn:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are both off by at least 0.2% indicating a not so-smooth session ahead tonight:
Japanese stocks are doing the best but it’s a weak result with the Nikkei 225 closing with a scratch session, up 0.1% to 24270 points. The USDJPY pair has rejected short term overhead resistance above at the 114 handle, retracing slightly to the 113.80 level so far in the afternoon session. This minor retracement is to be expected given the overcooked momentum readings from late last week, so a further pullback to ATR support would not be a surprise:
The ASX200 has fallen again, off by nearly 0.6% to 6130 points, still rejecting former support now resistance at the 6200 point level as banks take another whack from the Royal Commission imbroglio. The Aussie dollar fell sharply in the wake of the RBA hold this afternoon, breaking below the 72 handle and making a new low for the week. This is ominous indeed with my target below at 71.30:
The economic calendar is relatively benign tonight, but there is a speech by Fed Chairman Powell at a conference to take note of that could be very USD sensitive.