Yet another staid open for risk markets here in Asia as we kick off another trading week with stocks largely unchanged. The two major economic events this week – OPEC+ on Tuesday and NFP on Friday – are keeping things in a holding pattern. Gold is finding some buying support early, as is Bitcoin, with a nice gap higher on weekend trade, currently above the $34K level:
The Shanghai Composite is falling slightly going into the close, down 0.1% to 3603 points, while the Hang Seng Index is yet to re-open after a storm scare earlier in the session. Japanese stocks are also facing headwinds with the the Nikkei 225 about to close a few points lower due to a stronger Yen as the USDJPY pair continues its stallout from thee midweek trend reversal previously:
Australian stocks are very unsettled due to widening COVID restrictions with the ASX200 about to put in a scratch session just above 7300 points while the Australian dollar remained quiet but elevated, trying to get past the 76 handle and heading up to overhead resistance on the four hourly chart:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are both flat going into what should be a quiet session to start the trading week, with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing price wanting to keep climbing past the Friday night record high and head onwards and upwards to 4300 points:
The economic calendar starts the week with a few low key Fed and BOE speeches and not much else.