Macro Afternoon

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Risk is taking a holiday here in Asia in response to the slump overnight on Wall Street with the USD gaining strength against most of the majors not providing the usual help. The RBA meeting also failed to ignite animal spirits with the Australian dollar largely unchanged.

The Shanghai Composite is the standout, up 0.4% going into the close and remaining above 3000 points at 3038. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index is down a few points to be at 28938 points as it still tries to pull itself out of a near week long malaise after rising too fast from its recent trend line:

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US and Eurostoxx futures are flat with a lot of caution reigning with the S&P 500 still depressed after last night’s volatile push lower. It seems that the 2800 point level remains too far a stretch and will act again as staunch resistance tonight:

Japanese stock markets were the worst performers despite a much weaker Yen with the Nikkei 225 falling nearly 0.6% to around 21690 points, almost making a new weekly low as a result as it continues to align with other risk markets instead of the usual inverse correlation with Yen. The USDJPY pair has found more strength, bouncing off the low moving average and almost getting through the 112 handle again. Note however, that a new four hourly session high as not yet been made since the Monday morning open:

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The ASX200 finished just short of the 6200 point level, down 0.4% to 6199 points, not helped by the RBA hold or a lower Australian dollar. The Australian dollar fell before the RBA on the trade balance figures and then did nearly nothing post the meeting to remain below the downtrend from last week’s high:

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The economic calendar continues with two major things to watch tonight, first its the non-manufacturing (services) ISM print in the US followed by the BOE Governor Mark Carney’s testimony to the House of Lords.