Macro Afternoon

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Not quite the bath of blood on Asian markets although Japanese shares caught up to the fear over the weekend, while the usual buying of safe havens like gold and Yen abated somewhat as price was way overextended.

The Shanghai Composite has fallen 1.6% to break back below the 3000 point barrier, currently at 2980 points going into the close. Meanwhile the Hang Seng Index was the best in the region, closing only 0.2% lower to 26794 points as selling exhaustion sets in:

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Japanese share markets reopened and played catch up from their long weekend with the Nikkei 225 falling over 3% to 22639 points. The USDJPY pair bounced back slightly, up around 40 pips after its big selloff overnight, almost reaching the 111 level but it remains to be seen if this can be maintained going into overnight sessions:

The ASX200 has closed only 1.6% lower to 6866 points, as opposed to the 2-3% carnage from overnight markets and what futures were indicating. The Australian dollar is finding some buying support at the 66 handle and has not made a new session low since the start of the week as momentum builds higher – possible swing trade here :

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Eurostoxx and S&P futures are rebounding slightly, as the four hourly chart of the S&P500 finds support at the 3200 level from the previous dip in late January. Right now its probable that any good news will be bid hard but that could equally turn into a dead cat bounce:

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The economic calendar starts off quiet with a series of tertiary data from Germany, but ramps up with US consumer confidence and the latest house price figures.