A solid start to the week here in Asia, outside Australian stocks, with risk markets pushing higher from Friday night’s solid session on Wall Street and more weighing up on Brexit. Bitcoin has surged to a new high on comments from Chinese authorities on blockchains, while gold is holding steady above $1500USD per ounce as USD holds strong against the majors.
The Shanghai Composite is moving higher, currently up 0.7% to 2975 points, just shy of the 3000 points barrier while the Hang Seng Index has broken out of its sideways funk to close nearly 1% higher to 26918 points, breaking the weekly downtrend line:
Japanese share markets had a solid move higher, with the Nikkei 225 closing up 0.3% to 22867 points as Yen moderating slightly on the Monday morning gap open following Friday nights surged in the USDJPY pair. Price is still being supported here on the four hourly chart with a series of higher lows, so the 109 handle remains the target:
The ASX200 was the odd one out in the region, putting in a scratch session despite gapping over 20 points higher at the open, closing dead flat at 6740 points. The Aussie dollar can’t find the support that held it just above the 68 handle of Friday night and is matching last week’s session lows going into the City open, where a rout is possible here:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are up slightly with the Friday night surge in the S&P500 holding on here just below the record high with the hourly chart showing support building at the psychlogically important 3000 point barrier, ready to advance higher:
The economic calendar starts the week with a relatively clean run with only one major release to watch out for: US advanced goods trade balance for September.