Macro Afternoon

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No surprise that Asian markets would react to the overnight selloff as the US shutdown, Mattis’ resignation and the usual end of year positioning add to the dour mood.

The Shanghai Composite is down over 1% going into the close, currently at 2501 points as the selloff gains momentum. The Hang Seng Index is treading water, down only 0.2% to 25569 points. This keeps it well under previous support at 25600 and the very tentative uptrend line, with a retest to the previous lows at 24500 likely:

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US and Eurostoxx futures are off slightly going into the London open, with no evidence of buyers around. The four hourly S&P 500 futures chart still looks well oversold but apart from the long pin bar from overnight there is no evidence of a slowdown or bounceback:

Japanese stocks had another bad day, with the Nikkei 225 closing more than 1% lower to 20166 points taking it below the September 2017 lows after failing at terminal support at 21000 proper. The USDJPY pair has finally stopped falling however, stabilising just above the 111 handle with a few successive blue bars suggesting there might be some bounceback soon:

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The ASX200 didn’t do too bad all considering, down 0.6% to 5467 points, but this breaks important psychological support at the 5500 point level and sets up for a bad start to next week. The Aussie dollar has continued its overnight falls, hovering just above the 71 handle but remaining quite oversold and ripe for a bounceback:

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The economic calendar finishes the week with two big ones, Durable Goods for November, and 3Q GDP for the US.