Asian stock markets have gone into risk off mode going into the weekend, despite the Black Friday retail orgy but mainly due to lack of direction from closed a Wall Street. A speech by BOJ Governor Kuroda has rattled a bit of confidence in Japan and elsewhere as he states “fiscal and monetary policy is not enough”, while volatility on currency markets is rising in preparation for a packed economic calendar tonight and going into next week.
The Shanghai Composite is falling sharply after its poor showing yesterday, currently down 0.6% to 2861 points while the Hang Seng Index is the biggest loser, down 2% as markets absorb the potential for another round of protests this weekend. The daily chart was tentatively bullish but price action has nearly taken out all signs of support here:
Japanese share markets have fallen slightly in the wake of Governor Kuroda’s speech with the Nikkei 225 about to close 0.2% lower to 23352 points, as it continues to hover above daily support at the 23000 level. The USDJPY pair is not able to make anymore gains here above the 109 handle with the four hourly chart putting in a classic bearish double top pattern as momentum looks to invert:
The ASX200 is just holding on to a scratch session, down about 0.2% into the close and remaining above the 6800 points barrier. The Aussie dollar is finding some life here after trying to find a bottom here yesterday, bouncing off last week’s extreme low at the 67.70 level:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures have flat lined here with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing an unstable intention of direction going into the return this evening from the Thanksgiving break:
The economic calendar will be dominated by European and German CPI and unemployment prints tonight.