A mixed day to start the new trading week here in Asia, with tech stocks in China getting hammered as news of more lockdowns on the mainland spook local markets. Meanwhile, other bourses are buoyed by the positive run on European shares on Friday with the USD surging against everything undollar, particularly Yen and Euro but also the Australian dollar despite commodities remaining firm. Oil prices are starting to slip in early trade while gold is being pushed well below the $2000USD per ounce level while Bitcoin is also breaking down and heading back to its previous weekly lows to be at the $38K level:
Mainland Chinese shares are selling off again with the Shanghai Composite currently down more than 1.2% to 3266 points while the Hang Seng Index is having a steep fall, currently down nearly 4% as it breaks well below the key 20000 point barrier, now at 19757 points. Japanese stock markets however are steaming ahead, helped by a much lower Yen as the Nikkei 225 is looking to close more than 1% higher at 25422 points with the USDJPY pair continuing to soar again as it accelerates above the 117 handle in a very strong move thats looking quiet overextended:
Australian stocks are again proving resilient with the ASX200 finishing over 1% higher to get back above the 7100 point level, closing at 7149 points. Meanwhile the Australian dollar is falling after its rout on Friday night, now back at the mid 72 level and below weekly support as the London session gets underway:
Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures are starting to push a little higher here with the latter trying to regain the lost confidence from Friday night as the S&P500 four hourly chart is still showing considerable overhead resistance that needs to be cleared as momentum remains negative:
The economic calendar has a very quiet start to the trading week with no real events of note as all eyes remain on Ukraine.