Not the best end to the trading week as Asian stocks experience mixed sessions following the slump in Meta and other tech stocks overnight, with the recent ECB meeting keeping USD strong against the currency majors. Euro remains below parity while the Australian dollar is trying again to get past the 65 handle. Oil prices are steady with Brent crude climbing above the $96USD per barrel level while gold is still holding on to its previous week gains, back at the last week high around the $1665USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are retreating sharply going into the afternoon session, with the Shanghai Composite falling nearly 1% to 2958 points while the Hang Seng Index has slumped again, down 2.3% to 15059 points, taking back all the recent gains. Japanese stock markets are in retreat mode following the BOJ meeting as Yen appreciates with the Nikkei 225 about to close 0.4% lower to 27216 points, while the USDJPY pair is still unable to get off the floor, still down at the 146 level:
Australian stocks were unable to escape the selling, with the ASX200 currently down 1%, retreating back below the 6800 point level at 6776 points. The Australian dollar remains relatively solid here just below the 65 handle after a slight decline overnight, holding steady amid a stronger USD:
Eurostoxx and US futures are down as we head into the London session with last night’s poor lead from Wall Street still weighing as the S&P500 four hourly futures chart shows price action ready to crack below the 3800 area, where its been unable to get past monthly resistance (upper black horizontal line). Medium term and possibly psychological long term resistance at the 4000 point level is a distant memory, with the area to watch being the start of week position at the 3760 point level:
The economic calendar will finish the week with German GDP and inflation, then US PCE and core inflation prints.