A somewhat mixed day on stock markets across Asia as the poor lead from Wall Street and the drop in USD overnight seeing sentiment shift from the positive mood at the start of the week. Today’s better than expected unemployment print saw the Aussie dollar jump while gold also rose among the undollar assets.
The Shanghai Composite spiked again on the open but still can’t hold onto any gains, closing some 0.2% lower to 2973 points while the Hang Seng Index continued its post breakout rally, lifting 0.4% to be at 26770 points, almost cracking resistance at 27000:
Japanese share markets were mixed given the sideways move on Yen overnight plus the poor lead from Wall Street with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.1% lower at 22451 points. The USDJPY pair remains stalled just below the 109 handle, taking some heat out of the very sharp advance this last week and a half:
The ASX200 sold off the most, losing nearly 0.8% in the wake of the unemployment print as expectations for more rate cuts from the RBA took the rug from underneath, finishing at 6684 points. The Australian dollar spiked on the release, making good on yesterday’s breakout but has pulled back slightly on the European open, currently still below the 68 handle:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are down slightly with the S&P500 four hourly chart still showing a reluctance to break over the psychologically important 3000 point barrier, as traders continue to weigh up overseas macro risks:
The economic calendar has a broad European focus with the start of the summit today in Brussels, but there’s also a raft of secondary releases from the US, including initial jobless claims numbers to keep an eye on.