Asian share markets have broadly lifted despite a falling Wall Street overnight with a weaker USD helping local currencies lift, except for Yen which remains hopelessly weak at record lows. The Australian dollar has pushed slightly higher to above the mid 66 cent level with mixed performance on commodity markets.
Oil prices are still holding on without much intrasession volatility with Brent crude still around the $85USD per barrel level while gold continues to struggling following its recent reversal, rolling over in afternoon trade below the $2330USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are still falling with the Shanghai Composite down some 0.5% going into the close to stay well below the 3000 point barrier while the Hang Seng Index is putting in a scratch session to finish at 18015 points. Meanwhile Japanese stock markets are liking the lower Yen with the Nikkei 225 up nearly 1% to 39173 points as the USDJPY pair consolidates above the 159 level after making another record high:
Australian stocks had the best results in the region with the ASX200 gaining over 1.4% to 7838 points while the Australian dollar also had some upside, lifting above the mid 66 cent level to almost match its Friday night high:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are stable and down 0.4% respectively as we head into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price action holding above the 5500 point level which must hold as support:
The economic calendar ramps up with Canadian inflation and US house price data tonight.