Asian stocks are mixed following a similarly mixed lead from Wall Street overnight as tech stocks retreat and traders anticipate tonight’s ECB meeting with the USD continuing its pullback against the major currencies with both Euro and Pound Sterling are holding on to their gains, while the Australian dollar finally gets above the 65 handle. Oil prices are steady with Brent crude steady just above the $95USD per barrel level while gold is still holding on to its previous week gains, almost back at the last week high around the $1665USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are retreating again going into the close, with the Shanghai Composite back below the 3000 point barrier while the Hang Seng Index is moving higher instead, up 1.7% to 15573 points. Japanese stock markets are pulling back as Yen appreciates with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.4% lower to 27345 points, while the USDJPY pair is falling sharply after its failure to stabilise overnight, now down to the 145 level:
Australian stocks had a solid session with the ASX200 closing 0.5% higher, building above the 6800 point level to close at 6845 points. The Australian dollar also had a good session, finally busting through the 65 handle after putting in a series of higher four hourly sessions:
Eurostoxx and US futures are down 0.2% or so as we head into the London session with last night’s mixed lead on Wall Street and Facebooks fallout not helping the chances of a rally tonight. The S&P500 four hourly futures chart shows price action hesitating here after clearing the 3800 area still hovering at monthly resistance (upper black horizontal line). Medium term and possibly psychological long term resistance at the 4000 point level is a distant memory, but this does set up another attempt as short term momentum remains overbought:
The economic calendar will focus squarely on the latest ECB meeting, then US durable goods orders for September.