Asian stock markets are still in a negative funk as the risk complex continues to push recession fears and higher inflation to the forefront going into the end of the trading year. The USD is still strong against most of the major currency pairs with the Australian dollar falling well below the 67 cent level. Oil prices are still depressed with Brent crude slumping below the $80USD per barrel level while gold is trying to hard to bounce off its recent overnight lows but is struggling here just below the $1770USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets started lower at the open, rebounded at lunch but are struggling to put in positive returns at the close, the Shanghai Composite moving back below the 3200 point level to be down 0.5% to 3191 points. Meanwhile the Hang Seng Index has retreated, down more than 1 % to 19220 points. Japanese stock markets went straight back into sale mode, with the Nikkei 225 finishing 0.7% lower at 27686 points while the USDJPY pair is still moving higher after its recent bounceback, now pushing aside short term resistance at the 137 level:
Australian stocks had some of the worst falls due to the slump on Wall Street overnight with the ASX200 finishing 0.8% lower at 7229 points. The Australian dollar was unable to claw back any of its overnight losses, making a new intraweek low here below th 67 handle with short term momentum still clearly negative:
Eurostoxx and US futures are building back slowly from their overnight losses going into the London open with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action still under last week’s low and of course the very important 4000 point level:
The economic calendar will focus squarely on the latest Euro wide GDP print, with some oil stock data from the US to follow.