North of Cairns 2017: Photo by Chris Becker
Stock markets are quite mixed throughout Asia, although the local market is surging again, with further COVID cases in Japan partiuclarly weighing. Bitcoin gained and lost nearly $1000 in “value” in the last couple of hours while gold remains under pressure as its still unable to get back up to the $1900USD per ounce resistance level:
The Shanghai Composite was up throughout the day but has fallen going into the close, currently up only 0.1% to 3343 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index is putting in another scratch session, up only 0.15% to 26453 points. Japanese stock markets are finally retracing with the Nikkei 225 falling back 1.1% to 26004 points while the USDJPY pair is continuing its own retracement, now dicing with the 104 handle having lost almost all of last week’s move higher:
The ASX200 was the best in the region, gaining more than 0.5% to close at 6531 points while the Australian dollar is maintaining a relatively stable position here just below the 73 level, arresting most of last night’s slip:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are again lacking momentum as seen on the four hourly chart of the S&P500, still showing price wanting to exceed the October highs which are acting as strong resistance:
The economic calendar includes the Euro-wide core inflation print plus US housing starts and a few Federal Reserve speeches (probably a lot about not wanting to go back to the gold standard….)