Asian share markets have had a very solid finish to the trading week, following through on the good mood from overnight markets. In currency land, USD remains relatively weak against the majors, especially Yen while the Australian dollar has broken through the 71 cent barrier. Oil prices are inching higher, with Brent crude now hovering just above the $117USD per barrel level while gold is trying to stabilise around the $1850USD per ounce level, having made no progress this week so far:
Mainland Chinese share markets have continued their rebound although the Shanghai Composite did have a wobble at the end of the session, finishing up 0.2% to 3130 points while the Hang Seng Index zoomed higher, up nearly 2% to close at 20512 points. Japanese stock markets finally found some life with the Nikkei 225 index gaining nearly 0.7% to close at 26781 points while the USDJPY pair has retraced yet again down to its intraweek low, currently hovering below the 127 level as Yen defensive buying has not yet abated:
Australian stocks put in a solid session with the ASX200 finishing nearly 1% higher at 7182 points while the Australian dollar burst above the 71 handle against USD after nearly a week of containment to finally clear resistance at that level:
Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures are reading to move higher as we head into the European open with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price wanting to exceed the previous weekly high around the 4100 point level as intrasession volatility is building again:
The economic calendar finishes the week with core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) in the US followed by the closely watched Michigan consumer sentiment survey.