A better than expected day on stock markets across Asia despite the poor lead from Wall Street on Friday night as the weakening in USD and co-ordinated volatility in currency markets abated on the Monday morning gap open. A lack of data throughout the session and later tonight is seeing some stability come back to risk taking, with gold steady alongside the Aussie dollar and other risk currencies.
The Shanghai Composite is still unable to make good on any catalysts, dropping another 0.2% going into the close at 2930 points while the Hang Seng Index is treading water as it fights resistance overhead at the 27000 point level, closing a few points higher to 26725 points and not looking energetic at all on the daily chart:
Japanese share markets were the best performers in the region as the Yen weakened slightly during the session, the Nikkei 225 closing 0.25% higher to 22552 points while the TOPIX advanced nearly double. The USDJPY pair is clawing its way back after a near stall is seeing a minor recovery above the mid 108’s take place but the high moving average on the four hourly chart and flat momentum point to a sideways bent for now:
The ASX200 put in a flat session, finally stabilising after the sell off late last week, up a handful of points to close at 6652 points. The slowdown in the climb in the Aussie dollar helped a little bit, as buying exhaustion sets in following the weekend gap, as the Pacific Peso stalls at the 68.60 level before the City open:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are up around 0.2% or so with the S&P500 four hourly chart still showing a reluctance to break over the psychologically important 3000 point barrier, as price marches sideways but still supported without much selling pressure:
The economic calendar starts the week slowly with not many important releases tonight, with the US budget and second tier ECB data the only things to note.