Macro Afternoon

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Share markets in Asia are mixed today despite the green board across other risk markets overnight, as traders look for more clues and innuendo surrounding the trade war truce between the US and China coming out of the G20 on the weekend. In other words, don’t trust a word either side has said and verify…

The Shanghai Composite has retraced a little, falling about 0.2% to 3040 points, still well above the 3000 point barrier and holding on to yesterdays large bounceback. The Hang Seng Index reopened after its national holiday playing catchup and gapping over 1% higher to be just below the 29000 point level, making a new weekly and monthly high:

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Japanese share markets put in mild rises as the Yen went nowhere in today’s session, with the Nikkei 225 closing only 0.1% higher but still looking firm here at 21754 points. The USJDPY pair is effectively unchanged with a series of lower highs and higher lows pushing it to a breakout point just above the 108 handle that should move soon as it remains too overbought in the short term:

The ASX200 basically tread water today after starting well enough with a late selloff post the RBA meeting sending it to a scratch result, closing at 6653 points. The Australian dollar bounced back a little bit this morning after last nights sharp selloff, but was unpertubed during the rate cut, moving in only a 30 pip range. It has been unable to get back above the 70 handle so tonight’s trade when the City opens will be quite telling:

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S&P and Eurostoxx futures are only slightly up, around 0.2% or so reflecting the mixed mood here in Asia. The four hourly chart of the S&P500 chart remains positive after the previous breakout above the previous weekly highs at the 2970 point level but so far this hasn’t translated into a solid rally here:

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The economic calendar is relatively quiet tonight with the latest German retail sales and UK construction PMIs to watch out for. Governor Lowe will be giving a speech tomorrow morning in Darwin that could be interesting post today’s meeting.