Kayaking in the Cook Islands, 2019: Photo by H. Becker
Stock markets are relatively buoyant across Asia despite Wall Street’s faltering steps on Friday night with Japanese markets closed and the economic calendar relatively quiet to start the week. Bitcoin is trying to push through the $19000 barrier while gold stabilises just above its recent lows, currently up a few dollars at the $1873USD per ounce level:
The Shanghai Composite is pushing ahead with a very positive session, up nearly 1% to 3409 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index its a case of just treading water with a scratch session, stuck at 26443 points. Japanese stock markets were closed while slow trading in the USDJPY pair is still keeping out of trouble but only just at the 103.70 level, ready to break below shortly:
The ASX200 is still pushing higher, this time closing 0.3% higher to the 6561 point level while the Australian dollar is having a very minor pullback as it remains floating just above the 73 handle against USD:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are again lacking momentum as seen on the four hourly chart of the S&P500, with price hovering just above trailing ATR support at the 3550 point level, with the inability to make a new high last week weighing:
The economic calendar starts the week with a series of flash manufacturing and services PMI across Europe and the US, plus some more Fed speeches overnight that could again collide with the Trump “administration” stimulus ideas/golf tips.