It’s all about the Fed as traders await the FOMC meeting tomorrow night with Asian stocks slipping alongside Wall Street overnight. An election in mid-December in the UK is keeping currency volatility high, although the Aussie brushed aside today’s CPI print, Swiss Franc and gold are falling going into the City open.
The Shanghai Composite continues to pullback with a fall of nearly 0.4% lower to 2941 points, as the 3000 point level remains a too-hard barrier to break. Meanwhile the Hang Seng Index is moving the same way, down only 0.3% to be at 26693 points going into the close, but this stall below the previous weekly high and weekly downtrend line is weighing in the medium term:
Japanese share markets are falling into line as Yen strengthens against USD with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.6% lower, taking back the previous gains to 22834 points. The USDJPY pair is steadying going into the London session after a volatile night previously, unable to climb above the 109 handle with overbought momentum clawing back sharply:
The ASX200 was the biggest loser, down 0.8% to close at 6689 points, finally breaking the 6700 point barrier with the banking sector dropping over 1% and leading the selloff. The Aussie dollar absorbed the latest (out of date actually!) CPI print and is hovering just below the previous weekly high as momentum tapers off slightly:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are down slightly given the poor lead here in Asia with the S&P500 four hourly chart pulling back from the previous and hovering above the previous weekly high (black horizontal line):
The economic calendar ramps up tonight with German unemployment and CPI prints, plus the latest US GDP release.