Today’s private PMI manufacturing print in China, combined with some stimulus talk in Japan and the usual “must cut rates” talk locally is seeing a small boost to Asian risk as we end the week, but not the trading session overall as more prudent traders wait for tonights US NFP. The Aussie dollar has come back above 69 cents while the selloff in USDJPY has abated somewhat, with stock markets generally up across the region.
The Shanghai Composite found some ground finally, currently up 0.8% to 2950 points while the Hang Seng Index is up about half that, currently at just above 27000 points or 0.4% higher as it gets ready to breakout above the weekly downtrend line:
Japanese share markets fell back but not as much as expected given the big selloff in USD against Yen overnight, the Nikkei 225 currently down only 0.4% to 22817 points. The USDJPY pair is stabilising just above the 108 handle after the big dropoff overnight, wiping out all of the previous gains but looking considerably oversold here:
The ASX200 is barely in the green goign into the close, up only 0.1% and ready to write off a bad week, still below the 6700 point barrier, while the Aussie dollar brushed off last night’s mild selloff to be just a few pips above 69 cents against USD and looking to re-engage for further gains:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are up with the S&P500 four hourly chart still showing quite a bullish mood despite this week’s fits and spurts with the latest Fed cut and hopefully a good NFP print tonight providing a catalyst for more upside:
The economic calendar concludes the week but starts the month with the big one – US unemployment or non-farm payrolls – which will set the risk course for the next month. Have a good weekend!