Absence of bad news is good news for Asian stock markets which have moved out of their unsettled phase into a risk-on mood with broad gains across the region. Currency markets are seeing some firming against USD as risk currencies like Aussie, Kiwi and Euro all lift going into the London session. Gold remains well above the $1820USD per ounce level, but Bitcoin has pulled back slightly to just below the $44K level having broken the downtrend from the historic November high but still looking tenuous here:
Mainland Chinese shares got out of their hesitation mode with the Shanghai Composite currently up 0.6% to 3475 points while the Hang Seng Index has soared more than 2% higher going into the close, currently at 24871 points. Japanese stock markets have joined the party with the Nikkei 225 up 1.1% to 27601 points as the USDJPY pair moderates somewhat, finding resistance at the previous weekly high at the mid 115 level:
Australian stocks had a very solid session with the ASX200 finishing more than 1% higher at 7268 points while the Australian dollar was able to lift throughout the entire session, making a new weekly high and threatening the 72 handle in the process:
Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures are slowly lifting as we head into the London open, with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price pushed above the 4500 point level and the high moving average, signs that the market is ready to follow along with the Fed as we approach next months meeting, if it can clearly the previous weekly high:
The economic calendar includes the German balance of trade figures for December and the latest US mortgage data and wholesale inventory prints for December.