Asian share markets are down again today with risk sentiment slumping both locally due to the dour speech by RBA Assistant Governor Bullock while regionally caution reigned as traders await tonight’s Federal Reserve FOMC meeting. Currencies slid against USD as a result, with a lower Aussie the standout.
The Shanghai Composite has dropped suddenly after the lunch break, currently down 1% going into the close at 3059 points after making a strong start to the week. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index is off about half that, or 0.5% lower to 29313 points, still above last week’s breakout above 29000 points, but the daily chart was presaging such a reversal as the market got ahead of itself:
US and Eurostoxx futures are somewhat 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 tonight:
Japanese stock markets are also putting in scratch sessions again despite a big lift in the USDJPY pair, with the Nikkei 225 currently only up a handful of points to around 21576, unable to advance on its recent new weekly high. The USDJPY pair has lifted straight through previous local resistance at the high moving average and then some to be well into the mid 111’s:
The ASX200 is down 0.3% or so going in the close, mainly due to mining stocks and remaining below the 6200 point barrier again. The Australian dollar fell sharply on the back of the speech this morning, sending it right back down to trailing ATR support on the four hourly chart before a modest bounce this afternoon:
The economic calendar is squarely focused on the FOMC Meeting later tonight but there’s also the important UK CPI print for February beforehand and in the wee hours of the morning, its NZ 4Q GDP release.