A poor session to finish the trading year across Asian stock markets today, with Japanese inflation higher than expected not helping in today’s print as the fallout from Wall Street’s reversal overnight kept risk confidence depressed. Currency markets are seeing a moderation of USD appreciation while Yen is almost stagnant as the Australian dollar remains depressed below the 67 cent level. Meanwhile oil prices remain relatively stable with Brent crude holding just below the $82USD per barrel level while gold’s prior breakout above the key $1800USD per ounce level that was thwarted overnight is bouncing off the medium term trendline without making a new daily low but still shy of key resistance overhead:
Mainland Chinese share markets are barely holding on as we head into the close with the Shanghai Composite still below the 3100 point level, currently at 3054 points while the Hang Seng Index has fallen back, down 0.5% to the 19578 point level. Japanese stock markets had the biggest losses with the Nikkei 225 closing nearly 1% lower at 26255 points as the USDJPY pair drifts slightly higher to remain above the 132 level:
Australian stocks had moderate losses with the ASX200 falling some 0.7% lower as it breaks below support at the 7100 point level, finishing at 7092 points. The Australian dollar tried to clawback some of its overnight losses, moving just up to 67 level against USD, but nowhere near out of trouble:
Eurostoxx and US futures are slowly lifting, again trying to get off the floor as we head into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action still depressed below the 3900 points level as this relief rally evaporates with 4000 points still a distant memory:
The economic calendar doesn’t finish quietly with US durable goods and Michigan consumer sentiment prints tonight.