Wall Street closed out a volatile trading week with a mixed finish due to earnings reports and a long weekend, with US stocks closed tonight. This has left Asian markets with a weak follow, as futures indicate slightly lower or flat starts on the open this morning. Currency markets initially saw a continuation of USD strength before a late bounce with Euro almost crossing below the 1.06 handle to make a new weekly low, while the Australian dollar almost followed through below 68 cent level before a recovery. 10 year Treasury yields eased off somewhat from their big gains through the week, still holding on to a new high for the year. The commodity complex saw oil prices fall back sharply with Brent crude eventually closing the week at the $83USD per barrel level while gold is still in a depressed funk, but stabilised around the $1840USD per ounce level.
Looking at share markets in Asia from Friday’s session where mainland Chinese share markets were wavering without much confidence as they reel from the steep losses in the previous session, with the Shanghai Composite closing 0.7% lower at 3222 points while the Hang Seng was also on the decline, down 1.2% to 20719 points. The daily chart is now showing a clear rollover and downtrend after the NY breakout was unable to breach the 23000 point level. Price action has now rolled over through ATR support with momentum crossing into oversold territory as a possible corrective phase is starting to firm here as support at the 20000 point level comes under pressure:
Japanese stock markets followed suit with the Nikkei 225 closing nearly 0.7% lower at 27513 points. After bottoming out at the 25000 point level the next level to clear is still 27500 points, which was coming under pressure but momentum is waning. Daily momentum has reverted out of overbought mode and was suggesting a slide back below the low moving average next but support is holding quite strongly although futures are indicating a pullback on the open – watch for any break below the low moving average:
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