Asian stock markets are starting to pick up in optimism as the trading week unfold as Japanese markets reopen following the end of the Olympics. Gold remains under a lot of pressure, but hasn’t made a new low during the session, currently at $1736USD per ounce level while Bitcoin continues to outperform after gapping higher on the Monday morning re-open, trying to push through the $46K level:
The Shanghai Composite was listless until after the lunch break, eventually closing 0.7% higher at 3519 points while the Hang Seng Index has built on its positive start to the week, finishing 0.9% higher at 26537 points. Japanese stocks reopened with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.2% higher at 27888 points while the USDJPY pair has pushed slightly higher to almost cross above the medium term weekly downtrend line (upper sloping black line) at the mid 110 level:
Australian stocks are finding more upside despite the growing COVID outbreak in NSW, with the ASX200 closing 0.3% higher at 7562 points. Meanwhile the Australian dollar is still depressed at the 73 handle and about to break below the weekly lows:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are deflating slowly going into the London open, down about 0.1 to 0.2% so far with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 still showing price anchored at the 4420 point level following the better than expected NFP print with momentum waning:
The economic calendar includes the closely watched German ZEW survey and some more Treasury bond auctions.