Chinese stocks fall to a four year low with no help from the PBOC with concerns over GDP growth weighing on the market, while other Asian equities continue the surge from Friday night with European futures up at least 0.6% as it plays catchup to Wall Street. The USD is weakening slightly against the major currencies with not much volatility from the weekend gap as the Australian dollar remains largely unchanged just below the 66 cent level.
Oil prices are trying to get out of stall mode with Brent crude stalling at the $78USD per barrel level while gold has rejected its Friday night surge with a return to the $2020USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are pulling back sharply again as the Shanghai Composite falls nearly 3% to 2756 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index is having an equally rough day, down 2.7% to 14886 points. Japanese stock markets however are going the other way with the Nikkei 225 up more than 1.5% to 36546 points while the USDJPY pair has calmed down after a near 300 pip run up in the last trading week:
Australian stocks are gaining significant positive momentum, with the ASX200 lifting more than 0.7% to extend above the 7400 point level, closing at 7476 points. Meanwhile the Australian dollar is trying to get back above the 66 cent level after a fairly calm reaction to the weekend gap but needs more momentum here to break free of overhead resistance:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are relatively calm going into the London session given the weekend gap with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing a probable hold at or above the Friday night surge that almost hit the 4900 point level:
The economic calendar is very quiet tonight with no major releases.