A quiet day it has not been here in Asia as futures go haywire on the insane Russian attack on Ukraine (and Europes) largest nuclear powerplant, with the volatility to increase tonight as we get the latest US unemployment print, although that maybe overshadowed. Meanwhile, oil prices remain sky high, wheat and other agricultural commodities go limit up on supply concerns while commodity currencies are highly bid, with safe havens also seeing a run with gold pushing up to the $1940USD per ounce level, while Bitcoin is continuing to pullback as its retracement heads back to the $41K level:
Mainland Chinese shares are pulling back going into the close with the Shanghai Composite currently down 0.9% to 3448 points while the Hang Seng Index has slumped over 2.5% to fall to 21853 points. Japanese stock markets are also selling off sharply with the Nikkei 225 down more than 2% to 25956 points as the USDJPY pair continues to reject the previous weekly high at just above the mid 115 level although there are small signs of some intrasession support building:
Australian stocks were the best performers in the region, relatively speaking with the ASX200 managing to close the week out above the 7100 point level, finishing nearly 0.5% lower at 7111 points. Meanwhile the Australian dollar is pushing further onward from its recent gains, lifting through the mid 73 level as the London session gets underway:
Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures had a shocking day as news of the nuclear power plant attack came through, with a 3% drop that has been nearly half filled as news of the attack stopped, but the S&P500 four hourly chart shows price continuing to reject resistance at the key 4400 point level again, after retesting the short term bottom pattern:
The economic calendar will focus squarely on the latest monthly US jobs print, the non-farm payrolls print.