A late surge in stock buying, pushed by Chinese shares has seen most Asian share markets recover from earlier losses, while currency markets are again firming against USD going into the end of the trading week. Gold is bouncing back after breaking its short term symmetrical triangle pattern on the four hourly chart, coming back to just above the $1950USD per ounce level:
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite is surging into the close, up over 2% to 3338 points on vaccine and belligerent nationalistic news (saber rattling in the Taiwan Strait) while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index has come back, but not as much – up 0.5% to 24463 points. Japanese stock markets have put in a weak finish as the stronger Yen continue to bite with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.1% higher at 23360 points. The USDJPY pair is looking to rollover again and break below the 104.50 level going into tonight’s trade as it continues its breakdown:
The ASX200 was the worst, although it started with a flourish, it eventually closed 0.3% lower at 5864 points while the Australian dollar is trying again to breakout above short term resistance at the 73.40 level:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are steady with the S&P500 four hourly chart attempting to form a bottom here at the 3320 to 3350 zone, with a possible swing uptrend play in order tonight, but there’s still major resistance at the 3420 point area to clear:
The economic calendar finishes the week with the closely watched Michigan sentiment survey, but more imposing is the witching hour expiration of many option contracts on lots of share markets, so we could see a big uptick in volatility.
Have a good weekend!
PS: 46 days til the US Presidential election.