A fairly solid session for Asian stocks with Chinese bourses playing catchup after the interest rate shenigans from yesterday not overshadowed by the small stumble on Wall Street overnight as traders await the latest FOMC minutes. The USD remains strong with Australian dollar faltering as it clings on just above the 70 cent level while Euro flops around after a very poor start to the week. Meanwhile oil prices are also slipping, with Brent crude still under the pump, barely above the $93USD per barrel level, while gold is again proving frustrating as it holds on to its poor Monday morning start well below the $1800USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are finally finding some buyers Shanghai Composite lifting 0.4% into the close at 3290 points while the Hang Seng Index has bounced back, up 0.8% to 20005 points. Japanese stock markets are doing all the heavy lifting however, with the Nikkei 225 surging more than 1.2% to close at 29222 points as the USDJPY pair takes another shot at the previous weekly high at the 135 handle:
Australian stocks were the relative worst in the region with the ASX200 closing just 0.3% higher at 7127 points. The Australian dollar has been unable to get out of its start of week funk and is barely holding here just above the 70 cent level against USD:
Eurostoxx and US futures are holding on to their overnight positions as we head into the London session, as the S&P500 four hourly futures chart shows price action remaining well above trend from the July lows as it tries to extend further above the 4300 point level:
The economic calendar is packed tonight with the latest Euro GDP estimates and US retail sales, followed by the release of the FOMC minutes.