Asian stock markets had joined in on the retreats on Wall Street and in European shares overnight, and have fallen back across the region as risk in general waits for tonight’s all important US jobs report. The USD is getting stronger against the major currencies, with the Australian dollar still on the floor at the 64 cents level. Meanwhile oil prices are holding on to their recent gains due to the OPEC production cuts, with Brent crude still above the $94USD per barrel level while gold is in a holding pattern here following its breakthrough above the $1700USD per ounce level, unable to climb above resistance at the $1730 level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are closed all week for National Day holidays while the Hang Seng Index has gotten back into reversal mode, with a 1.3% loss to finish the week below the 18000 point level. Japanese stock markets are also selling off, but only half the amplitude, with the Nikkei 225 down just over 0.7% to close at 27109 points while the USDJPY pair is again trying to lift above the 145 level after the mid-week mild retracement:
Australian stocks joined in with the selling, with the ASX200 finishing down 0.8% to close the week out below the 6800 point level at 6762 points. The Australian dollar is still on the floor at its recent weekly lows with short term momentum looking to break even lower here:
Eurostoxx and US futures are drifting sideways as we head into the London session, with the S&P500 four hourly futures chart showing price action wanting to rollover further after hitting resistance at the 3800 point level. Medium term and possibly psychological long term resistance at the 4000 point level is still a long way away, but momentum and price action are pointing to a wait and see approach as we go into tonight’s all important jobs number:
The economic calendar will focus squarely on the September US NFP print.