by Chris Becker
Outside Australia, Asian stock markets are in retreat mode after being mixed yesterday as confidence fades going into tomorrow night’s NFP print, with all risk going into undollars like Yuan, Bitcoin and Yen and of course precious metals. Gold is having another stab at the $2050USD per ounce level with silver again re-engaging its own little bubble, currently zooming well past the $27USD per ounce level:
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite is slipping after a series of scratch sessions, down 0.5% to 3359 points, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index has reversed its recent advance to be down over 1.4% to 24752 points. Japanese stocks are also moving lower, with the Nikkei 225 falling 0.4% to 22418 points as Yen buying sees the USDJPY pair fall below its Monday morning starting price at the mid 105 level as the nascent bounceback stalls:
The ASX200 however was the odd one out, surging some 0.6% to finish well above the 6000 point level at 6042 points. This is despite a stronger Australian dollar which clawed back half of its late night pullback to be just above the 72 handle going into the City open and nearly at its previous weekly high:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are both flat in the wake of the BOE meeting and waiting for Congress to move forward with any further fiscal stimulus, with the S&P500 likely to open slightly lower tonight:
