It’s been a steady start to the week for equity markets here in Asia following the minor slump on Friday night in the US. Chinese stocks lead the way while Japanese bourses paused again despite a much lower Yen. The USD remains on a high against the major currency pairs while OPEC and other oil producing nations start to ponder supply cuts to arrest the falls in oil prices that seem to have no bottom.
The Shanghai Composite looks set to close 1 or more % higher, currently at 2627 points, still hanging on to key support at the 2600 level as it has been unable to translate the recent swing gains into a proper recovery last week. The Hang Seng Index is meandering however, barely up 0.1% or so to 25644 points, with the daily chart showing how it’s been unable to get back to the previous support level at 26000 points:
US and Eurostoxx futures are up slightly here with the four hourly S&P 500 futures chart showing another possible tackle of the midweek highs around 2800 points as momentum remains positive:
Japanese stocks have gone nowhere with the positive correlation with the USDJPY not helping today, as the Nikkei 225 closed only a handful of points higher to 22269 points. The USDJPY pair is ready to tackle last week’s high here above the 114 handle after coming out of the gates quickly in the Monday morning gap:
The ASX200 was a solid performer,with a small rise of 0.3% to finish the day at 5941 points. The Aussie dollar is still retracing back to trailing ATR support here with another poor session today, almost down to the 72 handle as it finds no buying support forthcoming:
The economic calendar starts the week quietly with a few minor ECB speeches in Europe and not much else.