Outside of local stocks, its been a red day for Asian stock markets as concerns over China’s red hot property market continue to weigh across the region. The USD remains relatively strong against the other majors, with Pound Sterling in particular looking very weak here while gold remains unable to climb back above the $1800USD per ounce level. Meanwhile Bitcoin is barely holding on to its overnight gains, sitting just above the $63K level but still below the previous record high which could be turning into resistance here:
Chinese shares are falling again with the Shanghai Composite in retreat, down more than 0.6%, currently at 3483 points while the Hang Seng Index has fallen nearly 1% as it continues its rollover from last week, currently at 24856 points. Japanese markets are also facing headwinds with the Nikkei 225 losing nearly 0.5% to close at 29520 points, not helped by the USDJPY pair which after putting in a swing move overnight has rolled over once again to be back below the 114 handle:
Australian stocks were the standout however with the ASX200 rallying nearly 1% to take back all of the previous losses to almost get back above the 7400 point level, helped along by a beleagured Australian dollar which is really struggling to build support here after getting sold off sharply overnight, hovering just above the 74 level against USD:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are fairly flat in response to the weak Asian lead with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing price pausing here above the 4600 point psychological level as we head into the next FOMC meeting, but still looking strong:
The economic calendar includes US private jobs data, the latest factory orders print plus the long awaited FOMC meeting starts.