by Chris Becker
The soft mood in Asia continues as we end the trading week as stock markets remain in retreat mode and wipe out the start of week gains. The USD is reversing slightly against the majors, with gold just hanging on after its fallback last night while other risk assets are also stable but looking weak going into the last session of the week.
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite is still falling after its big slump yesterday, down 0.5% going into the close at 3193 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index is the odd one out, up nearly 0.6% to 25123 points. The daily chart shows the full retracement of the big breakout above the 25000 point barrier:
Japanese stocks slipped again with the Nikkei 225 falling 0.3% to be at 22695 points while the USDJPY pair is largely unchanged from its overnight rebound, still unable to make any gains above the 107,20 level:
The ASX200 was higher at the open but is slipping in the afternoon session, currently down 0.1% and wanting to hold on to the 6000 point barrier, while the Australian dollar has put on a small rebound from its overnight retracement but is still stuck here below the 70 handle:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are slightly higher going into tonight’s session that has a few Euro-centric economic events. The four hourly chart of the S&P500 still looks choppy despite the previous tilt higher, with price still gravitating around the 3200 point level:
And that’s it for the trading week, have a good weekend and stay safe!