A boisterous start to the week here in Asia with almost all stock markets following the big night on Wall Street on Friday. This was despite growing macro concerns with Japanese machine orders falling, another possible round of tariffs from Trump and a slump in Chinese car sales. The USD continued its slide, albeit at a slower pace with the Australian dollar rising against the crosses too.
The Shanghai Composite launched out of the gate, putting on over 2%, currently at 2737 points going into the close. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index is having a solid day as well, up 1.6% to 28347 points. This doesn’t make it a new daily high but it’s very close as momentum picks up after Friday’s poor showing, the trend is not yet over with the low moving average still untouched:
US and Eurostoxx futures are up in line with other risk assets with the S&P 500 looking to build on its surge on Friday night, with the 2800 point level the target this week:
Japanese stock markets put on a very solid show as well, with the Nikkei 225 about to close nearly 2% higher, currently at 21282 points, getting back above key resistance that had been broken briefly last week. This is despite a slightly stronger Yen with almost no change in the USDJPY pair as traders await the BOJ and domestic policy makers on the slowing macro situation. I’m watching key support at the 110.20 level closely tonight:
The ASX200 was the weakest in the region, unable to hold onto significant gains earlier in the session, closing only 0.4% higher as banks dragged the bourse along, closing at 6089 points. The Australian dollar kept up the buoyant mood from Friday night, lifting up to the mid 71s against USD and also rising against YEn. This keeps it well above last week’s session highs and does set up for another rally to the 72 or even 73 handle before the next RBA meeting:
The economic calendar starts the week with almost nothing of note, keep an eye on US politics for a laugh I guess?