A generally dour day for Asian stock markets following a very bullish session on overnight markets with the burgeoning USD and increased concerns about the Chinese property market weighing on risk markets. The USD continues to gain against nearly everything, with the Euro cracking below the 1.13 handle and pushing the Australian dollar to new lows as gold held fast at the $1850USD per ounce level. Meanwhile crypto land is acting a bit cray cray, with Bitcoin falling through the $60K level taking it back to its previous weekly lows:
Chinese shares are quite mixed with the Shanghai Composite up 0.3% going into close, currently at 3532 points while the Hang Seng Index is giving up some of its previous gains to be down 0.4% at 25600 points. Japanese markets are slowly losing direction, with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.3% lower at 29719 points even as the USDJPY pair makes a new high to almost cross the 115 level:
Australian stocks were unable to take the “good” wages data in its stride with more falls today, the ASX200 closing 0.7% lower at 7369 points even as the Australian dollar accelerates its rollover from the failed swing start to the week, heading well below the 73 handle for a new weekly and monthly low:
