Asian stock markets are rallying for the most part across the region with the latest CPI print locally shooting to the underside and given local stocks a small boost. The Australian dollar is trying to stave off a freefall while USD fights back against Yen as we head into tonight’s very important Fed meeting. Bitcoin is decelerating this afternoon after breaking out of its start of week gap down, having pulled back from the overnight $55K level and not yet exceeding last week’s breakdown highs – a sign not all is well with the crypto thingy:
Chinese markets are still somewhat stuck with the Shanghai Composite looking to put in another scratch session, currently unchanged at 3444 points while the Hang Seng Index is up a scant 20 points to still be just under the 29000 point level. Japanese markets finally got a shot of confidence from a much lower Yen with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.4% higher at 29096 points while the USDJPY pair is attempting to breach the 109 handle as it remains well overbought and overextended following its start of weak breakout:
The ASX200 loved the CPI print, finishing exactly 0.5% higher at 7068 points, while the Australian dollar was the main casualty, falling straight down to the 77 handle before a mid afternoon rally failed to pick up momentum, now tipping over and looking tenuous here at the 77.40 level:
Eurostoxx futures are up 0.2% or so while S&P futures are basically unchanged going into the London open, with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing price wanting to expand on its recent record highs above the 4180 point level as momentum remains almost overbought in slight hesitation, but who’s going to stop this?
The economic calendar will focus squarely on one event overnight and that’s the FOMC – the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee – where a bunch of economists work out which way to push the tiny little rudder on the back of the behemoth called the US economy.