Macro Afternoon

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A mixed start to the week on risk markets here in Asia with another public holiday in Japan taking a lot of volume off the table, while the welcome return of Chinese markets is seeing confidence lift, at least on the mainland. The USDCHF pair had a big flip higher on what looks like another fat finger due to low volume on the Monday morning gap – another reason to bring in weekend trading of FX!

The Shanghai Composite is up nearly 1% higher going into the close, currently at 2642 points and building on its solid run on Friday. The Hong Kong Hang Seng is up only 0.25% or so to be just over 28000 points. This still keeps it well above former resistance, now firm support at the previous false break high at 27300:

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US and Eurostoxx futures are drifting down again with the four hourly S&P 500 futures chart showing an unwillingness to get a move on after the late surge on Friday night on Wall Street. Price is still hovering near the psychologically important 2700 point level, but this is looking weak:

Japanese stock markets were closed for yet another holiday, so trading was also muted in Yen with the USDJPY pair remaining a hair under the 110 handle all day. It’s still looking ripe for a breakout here with the upside at least at 112 or even 114:

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The ASX200 finished on a weaker note, down about 0.2% to start the week slowly, but still well above the 6000 point barrier at 6060 points. The Australian dollar is largely unchanged with a small rally on the open unable to gain momentum towards the afternoon as it remains below the 71 handle and near the January low.

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The economic calendar starts the week with a significant release, the Q4 GDP print in the UK.