Asian share markets continue to fall across the region, save locally with the poor lead from Wall Street and rising concerns over COVID in Europe with Chinese shares leading the way again. Bitcoin continues to really struggle here with another weak session going into the European session with the four hourly chart broadcasting more downside to follow as the $53K level is not far away:
The Shanghai Composite is down over 1.3% going into the close, currently at 3365 points at a new monthly low while the Hang Seng Index is fallling faster, down nearly 1.9% to 27972 points. Japanese markets are now joining in with a near 2% drop on the Nikkei 225 as it falls through the 29000 point barrier to close at 28472 points, with the USDJPY pair continuing its slower decline to the mid 108 level as Yen safe haven buying picks up despite a much stronger USD:
The ASX200 is the standout by actually putting on gains, closing 0.5% higher to 6778 points while the Australian dollar has flopped below the recent weekly lows at the 76 handle and looks extremely oversold going into the European open:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are down over 0.5% so far, with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing price wanting to return to last week’s intrasession low just below the key 3900 point psychological level with last night’s fill barely holding here as momentum readings turn sharply negative:
The economic calendar includes the UK inflation rate for February, and then all the flash PMI’s for Europe/Germany/UK before the US durable goods orders – a busy night!