A fairly calm session on Asia stock markets as they obvious yet more overnight macro and geopolitical seismic shifts, with stock futures suggesting a potential bounceback on European shares and Wall Street to come tonight. Brent crude is almost back to the $99USD per barrel while the Australian dollar is holding on to its upside gains from overnight, well above the 72 cent level as a result. Gold is hovering just above the $1900USD per ounce level while Bitcoin is having a Russian rally as the Ruble implodes, now pushing up towards the $44K level after breaking out overnight:
Mainland Chinese shares are putting in a mild lift with the Shanghai Composite currently up 0.3% to 3472 points while the Hang Seng Index can’t get anywhere, currently down 0.1% to 22692 points. Japanese stock markets are doing much better however, with the Nikkei 225 bouncing 1.4% higher to 26912 points as the USDJPY pair oscillated around the 115 handle after dropping sharply overnight as short term momentum remains negative:
Australian stocks rallied despite a much higher Aussie dollar with the ASX200 managed to build above the 7000 point level, closing 0.7% higher at 7099 points. Meanwhile the Australian dollar is holding on to its overnight gains, sitting here right on the mid 72 level and in a holding pattern as the London session gets underway:
Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures are very slowly itching their way higher, wanting to show a bit more enthusiasm but confidence is just not there yet as the S&P500 four hourly chart clearly shows resistance coming up at the key 4400 point level to surpass last week’s high and fulfill a short term bottom pattern:
The economic calendar continues with the latest German retail sales and inflation numbers, then the US ISM manufacturing print.