Stock markets were quite mixed in the Asian session today without a solid lead from Wall Street as concerns over rare earth metal supply held back Japanese equities while currency markets are awaiting tonight’s ECB meeting. Most of the undollar’s remain in a strong position vs the almost dethroned King Dollar with the Aussie about to break through the 65 cent level again.
Oil markets are still consolidating but are losing some short term with Brent crude drifting below the $65USD per barrel level while gold has recovered from its minor contraction after getting ahead of itself in the Friday session, holding just below the $3370USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are in a holding pattern as well with the Shanghai Composite only up slightly in the afternoon session while the Hang Seng Index has put only nearly 0.5% to build well above the 23000 point level. Japanese stock markets however are in retreat on domestic news with the Nikkei 225 moving nearly 0.5% lower to 37552 points while trading in the USDPY pair has seen a small bounce back above the 143 level after the big reversal in the session overnight:
Australian stocks were unable to find any momentum with the ASX200 closing a few points lower at 8538 points while the Australian dollar was somewhat steady throughout the session, still holding just below the 65 handle:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are down slightly with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing a desire to return to the recent highs near the 6000 point level as short term momentum slips out of overbought mode as price action indicates exhaustion setting in:
The economic calendar includes the latest ECB central bank meeting and the US initial jobless claims preview before tomorrow night’s NFP print.
