Asian stock markets are pulling back despite the nominally higher finishes on Wall Street but its due to some big earnings misses reported after the close – notably Meta aka ZuckerFace- as NASDAQ shares are down 2.2% heading into the European session. Currency markets are largely unchanged as it looks like there is a pause or even a reversal of the reversal in USD strength across the board as risk sentiment sours ever so briefly. Gold remains just above the $1800USD per ounce level having clawed back throughout the trading week so far but is still facing a lot of resistance overhead:
Mainland and offshore Chinese shares remained closed for Chinese New Year and won’t be back until next week, with Japanese stocks markets taking back almost all of the previous sessions gains, with the Nikkei 225 closing 1.1% lower at 27217 points. Meanwhile the USDJPY pair has bounced off the 114 handle area after falling sharply overnight before it found some support and its now climbing back to the 114.50 mid level, but remains under enormous pressure here:
Australian stocks had a wavering session with the ASX200 closing 0.1% lower at 7078 points, while the Australian dollar continued to slide sideways after going nowhere overnight, continuing to find short term resistance at the 71.50 level, still shy of last week’s intrasession high:
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