Asian stocks are all putting in solid returns as market volatility spikes to the positive side following a very solid session on Wall Street on Friday night without any further macro events over the weekend. The USD is giving up a lot of the ground it gained last week on the back of Friday night’s solid economic reports as interest rate cut speculation ramps up again. As a result, the Australian dollar is getting some relief to almost cross the mid 66 cent level.
Oil prices are stable but looking weak here as Brent crude opens just above the $82USD per barrel level while gold is trying hard to steady itself after the recent steep falls, currently holding just above the $2340USD per ounce level this afternoon:
Mainland Chinese share markets are surging at the close with the Shanghai Composite up by more than 1% or so while the Hang Seng Index is following suit to close more than 1.2% higher at 18848 points. Meanwhile Japanese stock markets are the relative poor performers with the Nikkei 225 only managing a 0.6% gain to 38900 points as the USDJPY pair is able to repair the Friday night damage to almost return to the 157 level:
Australian stocks are trying to bounce back, with the ASX200 up nearly 0.8% to 7788 points while the Australian dollar has continued its late Friday night move higher to almost get back to the mid 66 cent level:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are both up marginally despite the solid returns here in Asia as we head into the London session. The S&P500 four hourly chart shows price action wanting to get back above the 5300 point level:
The economic calendar starts the trading week with the closely watched German IFO survey.