Macro Afternoon

By in Australian Dollar, Australian Shares

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See the latest Australian dollar analysis here:

Macro Afternoon

Asian stock markets are having mixed returns in response to the selloff on Wall Street on Friday night in the wake of the disappointing NFP jobs report.  The USD remains strong against all the majors as the Australian dollar broke below the 70 cent level while gold is holding on above the $1785USD per ounce level, finally not making any new session lows. Bitcoin on the other hand is getting assaulted on all sides with a mammoth drop to well below the $50K level after some very volatile weekend trading:

Mainland Chinese shares fell sharply going into the close with the Shanghai Composite down nearly 0.5% to cross back below the 3600 point level while the Hang Seng Index continues to bury itself with another deep loss, down 1.3% to 23466 points. Japanese markets remain under pressure with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.4% lower at 27927 points with the USDJPY pair bouncing just slightly above the 113 level for a weak start to the trading week:

Australian stocks were one of the lucky ones, with the ASX200 just able to put in a positive session, lifting 0.1% to close at 7245 points as the Australian dollar managed to get back above the 70 handle after the big selloff on Friday night sent it down into the 60’s, but this bounce maybe shortlived:

Eurostoxx futures and S&P futures are lifting a little going into the London open, with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price still wanting to breakout above the week long downtrend line but buying support remains insufficient despite the key 4500 point level holding in the recent downmove:

The economic calendar is always quiet post the NFP print with just the latest factory orders from Germany and a few US Treasury auctions to keep an eye on.

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Comments

  2. The Travelling PhantomMEMBER

    Hey Gav! How’s the in-laws, hopefully out of covid danger zone and out of hospital? What’s their Oxygen blood saturation?

    • GavinMEMBER

      Father in law is back home, apparently doing a bit better. Mother in law has aches and feeling quite fatigued. My sister in law is double vaccinated and is living in the same house and tested negative (for the second time today), so she’s been looking after them, but I believe the mother in law now regrets not having been vaccinated – I don’t know about father in law yet, since I haven’t spoken to him. I just wish they would have listened to me and the rest of the family.

      Hopefully they will get better.. it’s good that father in law is out of hospital.

    • JasonMEMBER

      The NSW Minerals Council CEO, Stephen Galilee said it was a bold and positive step.

      That should tell you all you need to know about the decision.

    • JasonMEMBER

      It’s not an athlete boycott is it? Just some weird diplomatic one (which feels like it is more likely to hurt the Diplomats etc who don’t get to go on a junket).

      • rustyMEMBER

        This article is an eye opener, could be a very interesting book to read, given the disappearance of the female Chinese tennis player… basically, if you back the wrong faction, you are ruined or dead! But I tell you what, they did bloody well in the interim. My wife was ‘disappeared’ by China’s elite – now I want to expose their corruption https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/04/wife-disappeared-chinas-elite-now-want-expose-corruption/

        Shum spent more than a decade at Beijing’s heart of power, where he and then-wife Whitney Duan were business partners and consiglieres to the Wen family, whose patriarch Wen Jiabao was the Chinese prime minister from 2003 to 2013. Together, Duan and Shum rose from nothing to become gatekeepers at the highest levels of power and amassed a fortune worth billions. Then, it all went wrong…

        After graduating, he worked at a private equity firm in Hong Kong and was sent back to China to tap into the economic boom unleashed by its abandonment of Maoism. But his years in Hong Kong and the US had changed him. He no longer understood the hidden codes and norms essential to doing business in his homeland. After nearly a decade of struggling, he met Whitney Duan…

        Her experience of Communist Party corruption and harassment pushed Duan to pursue success as an entrepreneur, outside the party. But no one in China can succeed against the system and she still needed political patrons. She cultivated ‘Auntie Zhang’, otherwise known as prime minister Wen Jiabao’s wife. Like Duan and Shum, both Wen and his wife had worked their way up from outside the Red aristocracy of revolutionary leaders’ families, for whose benefit the whole system is run.

        Having picked Shum as a husband for his business experience and trustworthiness, Duan schooled him in the ways of power in China: how to dress, sit and speak, exactly how to fawn over officials – and which ones – and how to subordinate his own desires and interests to serve those of the Wens. ‘I became her project, Eliza Doolittle…

    • skippy

      Don’t know if they will care all things considering … why would they want the international travelers …

  6. Mining BoganMEMBER

    On the weekend I hopped on the trusty steed and headed off to the quarantine station and Fort Nepean. The old quarantine station looks in spectacular condition.

    Is there any reason why it couldn’t have been cleaned up and readied for the wretched refuse of teh WuFlu?

      • Mining BoganMEMBER

        That’ll explain why everyone at the Portsea Golf Club looked and acted like Bill Heslop.

        • GingerMEMBER

          lol. It’s the permanent resident retiree playground with a significantly higher median age than other Vic and Aust.

          • Mining BoganMEMBER

            “You can’t stop progress.”

            Yeah, you can. Didn’t see one highrise.

            Edit: not a word of a lie, the first person I saw at the club was an older, portly type, slicked hair covering the bald, dressed all in black with a belt cutting him in half, carrying a bottle of bubbly and walking with great intensity. At 7.30 in the morning.

            He screamed Bill Heslop, as did the grumpy bloke in charge of the bistro. The same look!

    • Arthur Schopenhauer

      Only that it might lose its value as a potential development site. (And Airport access.)

  7. The Traveling Wilbur 🙉🙈🙊

    “A chainsaw can get out of hand really quickly.”

    Anon Far North Police Member.
    (late submission for observation of the year)

  10. The Traveling Wilbur 🙉🙈🙊

    I hope CB will be putting up a live commentary Ashes page – I assume that’s the only reason he chose to chip in extra hours this week to help out DLS. 😘😉

  13. GingerMEMBER

    What is it with Scotty Marketing and Gladys? Where is the upside to his defiant allegiance? Is she really a contender for pre-selection while ICAC is incomplete? Why wouldn’t SfM postpone his crush until after ICAC concludes and results are known? If it’s still unknown when pre-selection closes is hers a realistic candidacy? Clear downside is of course any adverse finding, whether prosecuted or not. Would SfM still endorse her?

    • Mining BoganMEMBER

      The election doesn’t matter. This is about undermining ICAC. An independent ICAC could put him and his mates in the big house so he’ll do whatever he can to sully the waters.

      • desmodromicMEMBER

        To me, this rings true. SfM using others to better self, no scruples, no morals and not a care.

      • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

        I agree Mr Bogan.
        Imagine the debacle if Gladdys won a seat and then had to resign due to ICAC findings leading to a prosecution!
        The libs would almost certainly lose any resulting by election but as you say ScoMo doesn’t give a fk about that.
        The whole shyte show would simply be framed as an example of why we shouldn’t have these ICACs destroying peoples faith in democracy.
        Vomit.
        https://twitter.com/ermoplumber/status/1446256395880316931?s=21

    • Swampy

      It’s truly bizarre unless we’re missing some truly epic plan by him. All it goes is widen the gulf between Lib and Lab and surely make those like Archer quite uncomfortable.

      • The Traveling Wilbur 🙉🙈🙊

        Yes. This will be one of those fiendishly clever multilayered Machiavellian n-deep 3-d chess political masterstrokes that Sconocchio is so well known for.

        Oh. Ok. It’s just truly bizarre.
        And won’t end well. What a shame.

    • JiggaMEMBER

      Good question Ginger! Almost like she led the bring the covid in brigade, or something? Oh , well its here now, lets all get on with it…

    • working class hamMEMBER

      He owes her.
      She basically had to do his bidding through out the entire pandemic. What better way to wash away ICAC grime than a Teflon federal stint. Some people actually believe she was victimised, my mum wants her to run, thank god she has no say in it, but I bet there a lot of well heeled middle aged/boomers that feel the same.

  17. Hugh PavletichMEMBER

    New Zealand: Kiwis must obey Jacinda Thought … apparently …

    ‘It’s a hellscape’: The age of misinformation is here – can government close the rabbit hole? … Michelle Duff … Stuff NZ

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300469809/its-a-hellscape-the-age-of-misinformation-is-here–can-government-close-the-rabbit-hole

    Misinformation can kill, and almost two years since Covid-19 hit our shores it’s a national security issue with no easy solution. How is it impacting how we treat each other, and society at large? Michelle Duff reports. …

    … An opportunity for change

    Society works because people accept rules and regulations, that those at the top know what they are doing and are generally telling the truth and acting in our best interests. This is part of the “social contract” that organises our lives.

    Beijing Normal University conspiracy theory researcher, New Zealander M R X Dentith, says this is one of the things conspiracy theories threaten. Incidents like the anti-lockdown traffic protests are a group of people going out of their way to disrupt an agreed way of life because they believe it’s inherently wrong or corrupt. “If you don’t believe there are a trusted set of people doing the mahi at the top of society, and you start doubting the experts, then you start doubting other rules.” … read more via hyperlink above …