Asian stock markets are not moving much across the region, given the poor lead from Wall Street overnight as both bond and currency markets react to more hawkishness from both Fed and ECB officials overnight. Local markets remain super quiet with the Australian dollar barely hold on to the mid 67 cent level as it pulls back in afternoon trade. Meanwhile oil prices are holding on to their overnight gains with Brent crude still above the $84USD per barrel level as gold stabilises from its little surge as well, currently hoverning just above the $1834USD per ounce level as it rejects the previous weekly high:
Mainland Chinese share markets are having a breather after the big surge in the previous session with the Shanghai Composite up slightly and still above the 3300 point barrier while the Hang Seng has taken some heat out by falling back around 0.4% but still over the 20000 point level. Japanese stock markets are mixed again with the Nikkei 225 down slightly to 27511 points while the USDJPY pair is climbing steadily to almost get back to the mid 136 level:
Australian stocks are again treading water in response to the weak lead from Wall Street with the ASX200 closing dead flat but still above the 7200 point level at 7256 points. The Australian dollar is waning in afternoon trade to hit the recent session lows around the mid 67 cent level and is still not yet out of trouble:
Eurostoxx and US futures remain weak and are starting to pull back even further, with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action still unable to get back above the 4000 point level. The possibility of a bottoming action is now evaporating here as a lot of resistance overhead remains with the downtrend dominant:
The economic calendar is packed again tonight, with Euro core inflation plus the latest ECB policy minutes followed by US initial jobless claims.