The trading week has started in mixed fashion with Asian stocks again all over the place, despite a very strong lead from Wall Street on Friday night. The USD however remains weak against all the majors while Bitcoin has put on a very volatile start, gapping below the $48K level before rebounding sharply back up through the $52K zone – a mere 10% intraday move!
Chinese markets took the biggest hits with the Shanghai Composite falling nearly 0.9% to 3443 points while the Hang Seng Index fell back only 0.2% to be just above 29000 points. Japanese markets finally found some life with the Nikkei 225 closing up nearly 0.4% at 29126 points while the USDJPY pair continues its very long drop, remaining below the 108 handle proper but not yet below Friday’s session low:
The ASX200 had a mild selloff again, losing only 0.2% to finish above the 7000 point barrier at 7040 points, while the Australian dollar was able to find a little more life hitting the 77.70 level but still not matching last week’s intrasession high:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are barely moving going into the London open, with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing price just below the record highs at the 4170 point level after the recent bounce from trailing ATR support at 4130 points with momentum not yet indicating a buy signal:
The economic calendar has two major releases to watch carefully tonight as possible catalysts, first the German IFO survey then the latest US durable goods orders for March.