Macro Afternoon

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A mixture of solid advances and staid scratch session across Asian share markets as we start the week post US employment print on Friday, which should set the tone for the month ahead, but there’s so many other catalysts – and volatility measures like Trump’s tweets – that are pushing this once solid economic event aside.  Gold has hung on despite a largish selloff on Friday while the the Australian dollar continues to build above 68 cents as housing finance comes in much stronger than expected.

The Shanghai Composite is the best in the region, up 0.6% to firmly advance above the 3000 point barrier while the Hang Seng Index has fallen back slightly to put in a scratch session, closing at 26683 points remaining somewhat overbought:

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Japanese share markets have done well despite a stalled Yen with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.5% higher again to 21318 points making another new daily high. The USDJPY pair didn’t move on the normal Monday morning gap open and is settling nicely just below the 107 handle with a very tight trading band:

The ASX200 pause its recent solid run, putting in a scratch session to finish where it started at 6648 points despite much better housing finance figures, possibly pulled back by the ever stronger Australian dollar. The Aussie is building above the 68 handle as momentum starts to get a little overcooked:

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S&P and Eurostoxx futures are barely moving however with the S&P500 four hourly chart still stretching like thin butter over toast to get to the 3000 point level again:

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The economic calendar starts the week with the latest monthly GDP print from the UK.