Macro Afternoon

Advertisement

A boost to optimism across risk markets today, following potential upside to the continued US-China trade talks, but this seems like a repeat of the last time! A bit of market manipulation from both sides is at hand with the PBOC again strengthening the Yuan, with gold falling slightly as the USD strengthens nearly across the board.

The Shanghai Composite swiftly lept higher and is holding on to those gains going into the close, up nearly 1% higher at 2988 points while the Hang Seng Index has retraced slightly given the huge gains yesterday, down about 0.8% to 26309 points. This is to be expected after a huge surge so we should see further consolidation going into the weekend:

Advertisement

Japanese share markets are the strongest given the risk on mood and as Yen sold off slightly during the session with the Nikkei 225 closing 2% higher at 21085 points making a new monthly high. The USDJPY pair is trying to get back above long held resistance at the 106.60 level but again is finding it tough, but momentum is still behind it:

The ASX200 surged in the damn the torpedos/recession move, up nearly 1% to close at 6613 points as the Australian dollar continued its advanced. The 68 handle was breached along with the long held resistance level (solid horizontal black line) nearly making a new monthly high. Could be a lot of selling here at this level coming soon, so I’m cautious of filling this in:

Advertisement

S&P and Eurostoxx futures are advancing strongly, up nearly 1% across the board on the good mood with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price breaking through the 2940 point resistance level and ready to party on as this new and improved wave of optimism carries through:

Advertisement

The economic calendar is US centric tonight with initial jobless claims and the very important ISM services PMI for August.