Amid the first Covid death in China in six months, Asian stock markets have seen a wide variety of falls across the region despite a surge of confidence on Wall Street on Friday night. The USD is fighting back after conceding a lot of ground against the currency majors with Euro breaking sharply below the 1.03 level while the Australian dollar has returned to last weeks low at the mid 66 cent level. Oil prices remain depressed with Brent crude now below the $87USD per barrel level while gold is falling in line with other majors, down at the $1745USD per ounce level after breaking short term support:
Mainland Chinese share markets are struggling with the Shanghai Composite down nearly 0.7% at 3074 points while the Hang Seng Index has regained lost ground, currently up more than 2.3% to 17568 points. Japanese stock markets are putting in scratch sessions again with the Nikkei 225 closing dead flat at 27898 points, while the USDJPY pair has slowly lifted above the 140 handle but not really making many waves here in comparison to others:
Australian stocks are having a wobbly start to the trading with the ASX200 closing some 0.2% lower at 7139 points. The Australian dollar gapped down over the weekend, and is looking to retest last week’s intrasession low at just above the 66 handle, with four hourly momentum retracing to oversold as resistance overhead just can’t be cleared:
Eurostoxx and US futures are drifting lower amid the rise in USD, with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action still well contained below the 4000 point level as support is about to be tested below:
The economic calendar starts the week with a few ECB and BOE banker speeches and some large Treasury auctions.