Stock markets are wavering in their resolve here in Asia following the meltup on Wall Street Friday night, with Japanese and Taiwanese stocks falling again on continued COVID concerns. While gold continues to surge higher, now at $1852USD per ounce, the crypto world is all gaga following the abandonment of Bitcoin by Elon Musk, with a huge drop in price over the weekend translating into a massive gap down almost to $40K, although a late tweet from Musk has seen it lift back up to the $45K level:
The Shanghai Composite is continuing its bounceback, now up over 1.6% to push through the 3500 point barrier, while the Hang Seng Index is also heading higher, up nearly 0.8% to 28229 points. Beleaguered Japanese stocks still can’t find some momentum, with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.9% lower at 27824 points as the USDJPY is pulling back from last week’s US CPI-induced breakout, as Yen buyers step in and pushing the pair down towards the 109 handle:
The ASX200 was looking to put in a solid session to start the week but has barely moved, lifting only 0.1% to remain just above the 7000 point support level. Meanwhile, the Australian dollar has had a small gap down absorbing the weekend news to be steady at the mid 75 level, again in the mid range after a false breakout last week was thwarted by the better than expected US CPI print:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are struggling to find traction here but there hasn’t been a sign of a pullback yet, with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing price wanting to extend above its Friday night closing point:
The economic calendar is relatively quiet tonight with some US Treasury auctions and not much else.