With most markets here in Asia are still in light volume mode, there continues to be some downside volatility in USD as the year draws to a close. The Chinese Yuan is appreciating, with a drop below the 6.98 level in offshore trading while gold jumped another $5 to be above the $1515USD per ounce level.
The Shanghai Composite is up nearly 1% going into the close, bouncing off the long held 3000 point resistance level, while the Hang Seng Index is up half a percent or so to be at 28346 points as it blast right by the previous October highs:
Japanese share markets slumped to a big bid in Yen with the Nikkei 225 starting the week with a poor session, closing nearly 0.7% lower to 23677 points. The USDJPY pair gapped slightly lower but then accelerated its selloff, breaking through all of last week’s truncated trading volume and support levels and then the week before, currently just above the 109 handle and looking stretched going into the City open:
The ASX200 is off by 0.25% to remain just above the 6800 point level to start the week, closing at 6804 points. The stubbornly high Australian dollar is partly to blame, gapping higher and almost breaking through the 70 handle, where it looks set to break and then get into seriously overbought territory:
Both S&P and Eurostoxx futures are somewhat flat going into the European open with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price poised well above the former resistance level at 3200 points as the bullish trend channel remains intact, however the market is looking more stretched than ever:
The economic calendar starts the week with German retail sales and the US advanced goods trade balance figures for December.