With Wall Street having a mid week holiday tonight, the impetus for more risk taking has subsided somewhat with Asian stocks mixed across the region. Local stocks are just holding on to their post RBA hold gains with the Australian dollar moving higher towards the 67 cent level.
Oil prices are holding on to their overnight gains with Brent crude just above the $85USD per barrel level while gold has gone nowhere as it remains stuck just above the $2300USD per ounce level in a two week long holding pattern:
Mainland Chinese share markets are failing in finding some positive momentum with the Shanghai Composite down some 0.2% going into the close while the Hang Seng Index has surged more than 2% in afternoon trade, currently at 18353 points. Meanwhile Japanese stock markets are failing to get out of their holding pattern with the Nikkei 225 unchanged at 38475 points as the USDJPY pair is losing momentum as it fails to get above the 158 level after recently matching its previous weekly high:
Australian stocks were unable to put in a positive session, with the ASX200 closing some 0.1% lower to 7768 points while the Australian dollar has lifted above the mid 66 cent handle as traders consider the RBA hold decision:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are both up marginally as we head into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action holding after last nights breakout with yet another step up higher forming:
The economic calendar is relatively quiet with closed US markets with UK core inflation the only major release to watch.