A solid start to the trading week for Asian stocks on the back of the surge on Wall Street from Friday night with financial stocks leading the way, although Chinese markets are still experiening volatility following the capital flight out of the Middle Kingdom. The USD is holding strong against the currency majors going into this week’s all important Fed meeting as Euro remains below parity while the Australian dollar is unable to get above the 64 handle. Oil prices are falling back with Brent crude now down to the $92USD per barrel level while gold is holding on to its Friday night slump, anchored here at the $1645USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are still falling but not as sharply from Friday, with the Shanghai Composite falling nearly 0.3% to 2909 points while the Hang Seng Index has bounced back, up 1% to just get back above the 15000 point level. Japanese stock markets are out of retreat mode with the Nikkei 225 closing more than 1.6% higher to 27538 points, while the USDJPY pair has been able to hold on to its Friday night surge but without any advancement, stuck just below the 148 handle:
Australian stocks were able to advance solidly, with the ASX200 closing 1.1% higher, back above the 6800 point level at 6863 points. The Australian dollar remains steady solid here just above the 64 handle after its decline on Friday night amid a stronger USD:
Eurostoxx and US futures are holding steady as we head into the London session with the strong finish on Friday night from Wall Street still keeping the S&P500 four hourly futures chart afloat. Price action has bounced off the 3800 area and cleared monthly resistance (upper black horizontal line) with medium term and possibly psychological long term resistance at the 4000 point level the next target above as we look through this week’s Fed meeting:
The economic calendar starts the week with the latest German retails sales print, then Euro wide flash core inflation and 3Q GDP numbers.