Kayaking in the Cook Islands, 2019: Photo by H. Becker
The higher than expected PMI prints in China today and sending stock markets in the Middle Kingdom higher while other bourses across Asia are in retracement mode despite the solid lead from Wall Street from Friday. Bitcoin is bouncing back harder, now well above $18000, while the weaker USD is still not helping gold at all, knocking it back to another new low, barely off the $1770USD per ounce level:
The Shanghai Composite is the odd one out, pushing more than 1% higher before its long lunchbreak to be well over 3400 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index is down 0.7% to 26466 points. Japanese stock markets are also struggling as the weight of a stronger Yen bears (sic) down some more, with the Nikkei 225 falling 0.7% to 26464 points while the USDJPY pair has continued its downtrend, still well below the 104 handle and possibly back to the mid November lows:
The ASX200 is the worst in the region, closing 1.2% lower to be well below the 6600 point level with resource companies and Qantas hit hard, while the Australian dollar briefly had a peakaboo above the 74 cent level but is pulling back ever so slightly before the London open, almost breaking its August high:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are down 0.5% or more with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing a potential retracement of the mid-week gains from last week back towards the key psychological 3600 point level:
The economic calendar starts the week with German inflation and US pending home sales.