Despite a very positive lead from Wall Street overnight, Asian equities fell back in the main, with Aussie stocks treading water for the second day in a row. The USD fell back against Yen and the Aussie, the latter on a run due to Governor Lowe’s comments on interest rates this morning, while gold and Bitcoin are finding some life later in the session.
The Shanghai Composite pulled back all of its previous gains to close nearly 0.9% lower at 2954 points, as the 3000 point level remains a staunch barrier while the Hang Seng Index has also proven unsteady with a pullback of 0.4% to close at 26779 points, but still just above the weekly downtrend line:
Japanese share markets were the standout, with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.4% higher to 22974 points despite Yen strengthening a little throughout the Asian session. The USDJPY pair is struggling to make any headway above the 109 handle and looks very toppy here on the four hourly chart with overbought momentum clawing back sharply:
The ASX200 put in another scratch session despite a strong open, closing 5 points higher at 6745 points. The Aussie dollar leapt out of its funk from Friday night and pushed through to the mid 68’s on the back of Lowe’s comments but is finding a little resistance going into the City open:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are down slightly despite the surge in Wall Street overnight with the S&P500 four hourly chart holding at last nights record high, but not advancing yet:
The economic calendar is relatively quiet with US house prices the main release of note.