A solid session for most Asian stock markets although this hasn’t translated into a full risk on response from S&P and Eurostoxx futures as currencies were unable to move in their risk proxy directions as usual, Yen in particular. The gold price and Yuan fix stayed steady while Bitcoin attempted but failed to breakout of its current funk.
Chinese stocks are the odd ones out with the Shanghai Composite barely hanging on to a positive result to close just above the former 2900 points resistance level. The Hang Seng Index fell back below its own resistance zone at 27000 points, falling 0.2% to 26943 points. An initial gap higher was retreated throughout the session and puts some doubt towards any sustainable trend:
Japanese share markets had a solid push, initially helped by a weaker Yen which then reversed later on in the session with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.3% higher to 23373 points, as it continues to build above daily support at the 23000 level. The USDJPY pair continued its Monday morning gap higher but then suddenly reversed once the 109 handle was breached, falling back below and looking considerably overbought going into the City session:
The ASX200 was the best in the region, closing 0.8% higher and almost cracking the 6800 points barrier, helped along by a big surge in Caltex. The Aussie dollar is trying to find a bottom here with a few slightly higher session highs as it grapples with last week’s extreme low at the 67.70 level:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures have stalled despite the good run here in Asia with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price hovering right on last night’s closing level but still above the record high of early last week at 3130 points:
The economic calendar includes the US advanced trade goods balance, the latest house price data and some more GDP components including inventory reports plus the latest consumer confidence index.