Kayaking in the Cook Islands, 2019: Photo by H. Becker
A relatively mixed first day of trading in 2021 here in Asia with Japanese stock markets pulling back as Yen surges, while the rest of the region saw good moves higher across stocks and other risk assets. The big non-suprise (?) has been epic upside volatility in Bitcoin, which launched over 10% higher to be above $33000 after treading water just below the $30,000 level in the last week of December. Gold has been pulled along for the ride, breaking out of its own month long funk and well above the $1900USD per ounce level:
The Shanghai Composite is up nearly 1% to just above the 3500 point level in a very strong move, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index has followed in a similar vain, up 0.8% to 27445 points. Japanese stock markets are the odd one out, with the Nikkei 225 losing 0.6% to be at 27266 points as trading in Yen firms immediately on the open with the USDJPY pair shifting below the 103 handle and threatening key support at the December lows:
The ASX200 finished nearly 1.5% higher at 6684 points while the Australian dollar was finding some life to begin with before moderating here later in the session to be just above the 77 handle going into the London open, looking strong on the four hourly chart at least:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are quite strong and ready to break out above the previous Xmas highs with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 wanting to move above the 3750 point level to yet another new record high:
The economic calendar is a bit sparse, but watch for the December final manufacturing PMI print from the US.