Asian stock markets are again unsettled in response to last night’s meandering session on Wall Street as all volatility seems to be in bond markets instead, with 10 year Treasuries hitting a new high at 1.95% yield. Currency markets are seeing some firming of USD against risk currencies Aussie and Euro pulling back as we head into the next US CPI print. Gold remains above the $1820USD per ounce level, but Bitcoin is surging once more, now well above the $45K level in a totally sustainable trend:
Mainland Chinese shares are in hesitation mode with the Chinese New Year holiday out of the way, the Shanghai Composite up only 0.1% to 3437 points while the Hang Seng Index is down 1.3% going into the close at 24261 points. Japanese stock markets are putting in scratch sessions with the Nikkei 225 up just 0.2% to 27285 points as the USDJPY pair pushes well above above the Friday night high at the mid 115 level, looking to test the previous weekly high:
Australian stocks had a much better session with the ASX200 finishing 1% higher at 7186 points while the Australian dollar was hit hard this afternoon, falling back to the 71 handle after a good start to the week, still failing to clear medium term term resistance at the 71.50 level:
Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures are going sideways as we head into the London open, with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price pushed below the 4500 point level as the market again re-evaluates the Fed’s position, waiting for tomorrow nights CPI print, with the series of lower lows here showing the lack of confidence:
The economic calendar is again relatively quiet with US balance of trade figures tonight.