Asian stock markets are starting the trading week in a much better fashion after the solid lead from Friday night on Wall Street with risk spirits higher despite some big increases in daily COVID infections across Europe and the US. Commodity currencies are bouncing back after cratering all last week although gold is almost unchanged while Bitcoin is having a very solid breakout above the $50K level after basing all of last week:
Chinese stocks are leading the bounceback with the Shanghai Composite taking back its Friday losses, closing 1.4% higher to close at 3476 points while the Hang Seng Index is doing the same, up 1.3% to close at 25187 points. Japanese stocks are doing even better with the Nikkei 225 finishing nearly 2% higher at 27494 points, after previously breaking through weekly support as Yen selling popped up mid session, sending the USDJPY pair almost through the 110 handle:
Australian stocks were the relative laggards in the region today with the ASX200 only gaining with SPI futures promised, rising 0.4% to start the week at 7489 points as the Australian dollar tried to bounce back after its swift slaughter down to the 71 handle, and is looking weak here going into the London open:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are looking to start higher going into the London open, as the BTFD crowd tries valiantly to get this dip completely wiped out and back to the record highs earlier in the month. The four hourly chart of the S&P500 shows price wanting to push higher towards the 4460 point level but momentum is not quite overbought and supportive (sic) of further price rises just yet:
The economic calendar starts the week with a slew of flash manufacturing and service PMIs for both sides of the Atlantic, the US version the most closely watched alongside the latest US existing home sales data.