Friday night saw Wall Street pause its gains after a fairly boisterous trading week that saw the USD lose significant ground against the currency majors due to a Fed pause and an ECB hike. The latest European core CPI data came in high as expected, adding to Euro’s charge above the 1.09 handle while the Australian dollar almost hit the 69 level following a stronger than expected employment print.
Oil prices came back slightly again on further USD weakness following the ECB rate hike, with Brent crude finishing above the $76USD per barrel level, making a new weekly high. Gold rebounded but it was all relative as it remains contained around the $1960USD per ounce level.
Looking at share markets in Asia from Friday’s session where mainland Chinese share markets lifted sharply going into the close with the Shanghai Composite up nearly 0.7% to finish at 3273 points while the Hang Seng Index was able to finally get past the 20000 point level, closing more than 1% higher at 20040 points.
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