Outside Japan it’s been a positive session on Asian stock markets today with domestic earnings troubles and a slightly stronger Yen the headwinds. The rest of the region is continuing the overnight bounce from Wall Street as traders struggle to build their confidence after an awful (if you’re long only) October.
The Shanghai Composite was moving higher throughout the session, up over 1% before slipping going into the close to finish up only a handful of points to 2607, still maintaining itself above key support at the 2600 level. The Hang Seng Index did much much better, surging over 1.5% to 25357 points, almost back to the previous support level at 26000 points as the probability of a possible bottom here continues to rise:
US and Eurostoxx futures are up, with the four hourly S&P 500 chart showing last night’s potential breakout after a bottoming action in the start of the week. I still contend it needs to get well above the former trendline at 2745 to 2750 or so before calling this correction over:
Japanese stocks pulled back due some poor earnings reports with the Nikkei 225 closing 1% lower at 21687 points, but still doing well after solid gains earlier in the week. The USDJPY pair was pushed slightly below the 113 handle,after previously breaking out strongly to make daily and weekly highs. This is a good pause as it got way ahead of itself, with the low moving average on the four hourly chart currently being respected:
The ASX200 had a slight pause, mainly due to strength in the Aussie dollar, but still closed in positive territory, up 0.2% to 5840 points. The Aussie dollar has surprised with a strong upside reversal, bursting through the 71 handle and rolling ATR resistance on the four hourly chart, making a new two weekly high in the process:
The economic calendar includes the latest BOE meeting and press conference, followed by US initial jobless claims and the ISM manufacturing report for October.