Quite a mixed start to the week here in Asia with mainland Chinese stocks falling swiftly, while the rest of the region is putting on minor gains, the ASX200 the standout, as some confidence returns. The USD is retreating slightly against the majors, with the Aussie dollar spiking, following on from its Friday night reversal. Daylight savings has ended in Europe so we get some more space between the sessions finally (just wish Queensland would catch up with the rest of civilization…)
The Shanghai Composite is the worst performer, currently 1.5% lower going into the close at 2559 points, still below key support at the 2600 level. The Hang Seng Index is up by 0.2% or so to 24768 points, still well below the previous support level at 26000 points but at least it’s not making another new daily low in what has been a messy downtrend:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are up ever so slightly, but as you can see on the four hourly S&P 500 chart there really is nothing to get excited about here:
Japanese stocks were barely positive with the Nikkei 225 currently 0.2% higher at 21235 points, not able to make any move as Yen remains relatively strong. The USDJPY pair is sliding sideways, still below the 112 handle and still a the bottom end of the symmetrical triangle that was broken on Friday night. A short term downward bias remains:
The ASX200 is doing much better, closing 1.1% higher to 5728 points after a terrible week previously, this was a bank led rally where stocks have been extremely oversold so bargain hunters are piling in. The Aussie dollar has continued its Friday night reversal, pipping just above the 71 handle and rolling ATR resistance on the four hourly chart:
The economic calendar starts the week slowly, but there is a follow on release from the US to watch out for tonight – personal consumption expenditure (PCE) for September.