Asian stock markets are not doing well as we restart the trading week despite solid gains across the board on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday night and some stronger commodity prices. The USD remains relatively strong against the majors, following Friday night US jobs print which surprised to the upside, with the Aussie dollar remaining depressed, but the real surprise was in gold which has finally rebounded above the $1800USD per ounce level. Meanwhile Bitcoin is making another go to get back to its former record high after deflating all last week, surging well above the $65K level for a stonking start to the trading week:
Chinese shares are bouncing back a little going into the afternoon session with the Shanghai Composite up 0.4%, currently at 3503 points while the Hang Seng Index is trying to get back on track, down nearly 0.3% as it remains well below the 25000 point level. Japanese markets are also failing to gain traction with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.2% lower at 29543 points as the USDJPY pair bounces back after a very bad Friday session saw it taken down almost to the 113 level:
Australian stocks are a bit shaky with commodity plays weighing on the local bourse, with the ASX200 falling a handful of points to close at 7452 while the Australian dollar remains depressed here just below the 74 level against USD after making a very low new weekly low last week:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are starting off meekly going into the first session for the week with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 showing price hovering at the 4680 point level after trying to advance past the 4700 point psychological level on Friday night, as fears over the Fed taper evaporate:
The economic calendar starts the week slowly as is usual post the NFP print, with a series of Treasury auctions and few non-important Fed and ECB speeches.