Asian share markets are generally slow to start the week given mixed macro signals over the weekend and the reversal in Chinese stocks. The USD is still pulling back against most of the major currency pairs but there are signs this is slowing, while the Australian dollar is barely able to hold above the mid 65 cent level after its slowdown from Friday night.
Oil prices have gapped significantly lower over the weekend with Brent crude holding at the $80USD per barrel level while gold wants to advance through the $2030USD per ounce level it exceeded on Friday night but is again hitting short term resistance:
Mainland and offshore Chinese share markets are reversing their post Chinese New Year rally with the Shanghai Composite down nearly 1% while the Hang Seng is off by more than 0.6% to 16626 points. Japanese stock markets have reopened from the long weekend with the Nikkei 225 up 0.3% to 39233 points while the USDJPY pair is largely unchanged, just hovering above the 150 handle:
Australian stocks have had a flat start to the trading week with the ASX200 up just 0.1% to remain above the 7600 point level while the Australian dollar has flat lined as well to be barely above the mid 65 cent level:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures have retraced slightly from their Friday night positions going into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action wanting to drop below the 5100 point level:
The economic calendar starts the week slowly with the latest US home sales data plus a closely watched speech by ECB President Lagarde.