A generally poor session across stock markets here in Asia with a run to Yen not helping while the Aussie dollar remains elevated, pumping the brakes on any advance on the ASX200.
The Shanghai Composite is having a breather, after yesterdays 2% pop, currently down about 0.2% to 3091 points but still looking strong. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index is down about the same to be at 29334 points, still above last week’s breakout above 29000 points, but the daily chart does show two topping candles in a row here:
US and Eurostoxx futures are flat going into tonight’s session with the four hourly chart of the S&P 500 forming a tighter bearish rising wedge pattern as all eyes start to turn to the Fed meeting tomorrow night:
Japanese stock markets are also putting in scratch sessions as the Yen strengthens, with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.2% lower to 21567 points, unable to advance on its recent new weekly high. The USDJPY pair has fallen straight into the low 111’s after last night’s session confirmed the weakness on the Monday morning gap, falling back to the medium term trendline:
The ASX200 had a clear scratch, losing only 5 points to remain under the 6200 point barrier as a higher Aussie dollar continues to weigh. The Pacific Peso is holding on strong above the 71 handle and is still setting up for an attempt through the upper downtrend line. A series of higher session lows is coming up against the abnormal blip higher from yesterday, so watch out tonight for that upper downtrend line to come under pressure:
The economic calendar is Euro centric again tonight with UK secondary employment figures followed by the very closely watched German ZEW survey, plus the usual scuttlebutt and pundit mouth breathers talking about the FOMC Meeting on Wednesday night.