As expected, it hasn’t been a good start to the week for Asian stock markets as the new round in the US trade war with China squashes all evidence of confidence that had been building up previously. Currency markets are feeling the heat too, with gold breaking out to a new daily high while its a new record high for offshore Yuan, now trading well above the 7 handle:
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite has fallen over 1%, building on its woes from Friday and currently at 2831 points while the Hang Seng Index has gapped down again, dropping a further 2.8% to 26171 points. This is far more than expected and puts it on track to take out the January lows at 25000 points:
Japanese share markets are doing nearly as bad, with the Nikkei 225 off by nearly 2% to close 1.7% lower at 20720 points. This is not being helped by big bids in Yen with the USDJPY pair well through the 106 handle here and not looking back:
The ASX200 has not escaped the carnage today, falling nearly 2% as the iron ore price weighs on miners, closing at 6640 points and almost at my downside target. The lower Australian dollar isn’t helping as it did on Friday, below the 68 handle again and ready for another breakdown:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are off down at least 1% going into the European session with the S&P500 four hourly chart looking to break below the next support level at 2900 points, which takes out the 2018 high:
The economic calendar starts the week out with US non-manufacturing (services) PMI print for July tonight and then NZ unemployment first thing in the morning.