Heading into Black Friday, Asian stock markets are somewhat mixed due to the lack of open markets in the US and likely thin trading tonight on Wall Street overnight. The USD remains weak against the currency majors but there hasn’t been much movement throughout the session with Euro holding at the 1.04 level while the Australian dollar is sleeping away at the mid 67 cent level. Oil prices remain depressed with Brent crude holding on just above the $85USD per barrel level while gold is slowly creeping higher, still playing catchup after falling behind the other undollars recently, now at the $1758USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are doing well going into the close with the Shanghai Composite up 0.5% at 3104 points while the Hang Seng Index is pulling back, currently down 0.6% to 17553 points. Japanese stock markets are faltering into the end of the week with the Nikkei 225 closing 0.3% lower at 28285 points while the USDJPY pair has stayed depressed below the 139 handle, still in sell mode after last night’s USD turnaround:
Australian stocks were able to put on modest gains to close out the week with the ASX200 finishing 0.25% higher at 7269 points. The Australian dollar is listless and somewhat stuck after its recent runup, stay here at the mid 67 handle, with four hourly momentum nicely overbought but price still short of last weeks high:
Eurostoxx and US futures are holding steady as expected following the Thanksgiving holiday with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action holding here well clear above the 4000 point level as support seems firm at the 3950 point level below:
The economic calendar is relatively quiet tonight but still includes the latest German GDP print to keep traders on their toes.