Outside China it’s been a fairly good run across stock markets here in Asia to start the week, absorbing the weekend news and lifting on the risk-on Friday mood. The USD continues to weaken against almost everything but gold, which is facing a near three month low as buying support evaporates.
The Shanghai Composite has fallen 10 points or just over 0.3% to close below 3200 points again, currently at 3177 while the Hang Seng Index has continued its small dip, down 0.1% to 29880 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 unchanged going into tonight’s session, with the four hourly chart of the S&P 500 wanting to advance further on the new high establised on Friday above the 2900 points level with trailing ATR support still ratcheting higher and being respected:
Japanese stock markets were the highlight as expected with the Nikkei 225 advancing strongly, up 1.4% to 22168 points in response to a much weaker Yen. The USDJPY pair however as expected as moderated its big Friday night breakout and slipped just below the 112 handle, still above its new weekly high:
Australian stocks had a breather due to the higher Australian dollar and the lack of direction from Chinese stocks with the ASX200 putting in a scratch session to be at 6251 points. The Australian dollar has absorbed the weekend news smoothly by gapping down slightly before recovering to be almost back at its Friday high, currently trading at 71.70 going into the City open:
The economic calendar is really quiet tonight with US Empire manufacturing and some Treasury auctions the only events of note as earnings season rolls on.