Risk is taking a pause in Asia with most stock markets giving up their start of week gains due to the uneasy lead from Wall Street overnight and rumblings of more conflict in the Middle East. The USD is firming against most of the majors as interest rate concerns dominate with the Australian dollar sliding further below the 66 cent level after yesterday’s hold decision by the RBA.
Oil prices are failing to stabilise after their recent sharp falls as they remain under downward pressure as Brent crude drops to the $82USD per barrel level while gold is also continuing its own struggle, steady but barely above the $2300USD per ounce level this afternoon:
Mainland Chinese share markets saw a slight fall with the Shanghai Composite down 0.6% going into the close while the Hang Seng Index also took a small tumble, losing more than 0.8% to finish at 18323 points. Meanwhile Japanese stock markets were the biggest losers with the Nikkei 225 taking back its previous gains, closing more than 1.5% lower at 38602 points with the USDJPY pair seeing a continued lift above the 155 level:
Australian stocks were the odds one out and held on to their post RBA meeting gains with the ASX200 closing 0.1% higher to cross the 7800 point barrier while the Australian dollar continued to slide below the 66 cent level but still above its previous weekly high:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are flat lining as we head into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action struggling to push above the 5200 point level:
The economic calendar includes a few Fed speeches and oil inventory data.