Asian stock markets are looking to start the trading week on a more upbeat note with Chinese stocks lifting in response to some more dovishness attitude to loans by the PBOC, despite the North Koreans shooting off some missiles again. Currency markets have largely gapped slightly higher versus USD after the weekend with the Australian dollar still struggling to get back above the 69 cent level. Meanwhile oil prices are drifting slightly lower with Brent crude hovering just above the $83USD per barrel level as gold tries to get out of its depression, still holding here at its Friday night small rally high at the $1840USD per ounce level but it doesn’t look pretty:
Mainland Chinese share markets are building in confidence after last week’s poor trading with the Shanghai Composite up 1% to 3258 points while the Hang Seng is also on the move higher, up 0.5% to 20816 points. Japanese stock markets are somewhat mixed with the Nikkei 225 about to close dead flat at 27501 points while the USDJPY pair is taking some heat out of its recent gains, currently hovering just above the 134 handle yet only slightly off its previous weekly high:
Australian stocks have gone nowhere with the ASX200 closing dead flat to remain well below the 7400 point level at 7351 points. The Australian dollar was able to gap slightly higher in weekend trade but is still shy of the 69 level and looks weak here after recently making a new weekly low:
Eurostoxx and US futures have gapped slightly higher but still look weak here after the poor showing on Friday night with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action barely off the previous weekly lows. While there is the possibility of a swing trade brewing, the lack of trading volume due to closed markets makes this hard to discern:
The economic calendar starts the week very slowly due to the US holiday with just a few German central bank speeches to keep an ear out on. Just don’t mention the war.