Another very mixed session here in Asia as traders position themselves before US earnings tonight with the overnight surge in USD continuing against the commodity currencies, although Euro is coming back late in the session.
The Shanghai Composite is set to close below 3200 points again, putting in a scratch session while the Hang Seng Index has continued its small dip, down 0.3% to 29740 points, still unable to get back to its recent steady state of daily highs above the 30,000 point level:
US and Eurostoxx futures are up only slightly going into tonight’s session, with the four hourly chart of the S&P 500 still showing an inability to get above last Friday’s high at the 2900 points level with trailing ATR support still being respected however:
Japanese stock markets are anything but stable today with the broader TOPIX falling while the Nikkei 225 advanced, closing 0.7% higher to 21870 points in response to a much weaker Yen. The USDJPY pair has continued its overnight surge to bear down on the 112 handle and has made a new weekly high as a result, but tonight’s session will see if it can be maintained:
Australian stocks were the best in the region with the ASX200 surging nearly 0.9% to be back above 6200 points, helped by the weaker Australian dollar and closing the week out at 6251 points. The Australian dollar had a minor blip early in the session but has now fallen back nearer to its overnight lows at just above the 71 handle:
The economic calendar finishes the week with EZ-wide industrial production numbers for February, then the University of Michigan April sentiment survey. Have a great weekend!