As the two most powerful but petulant men in the world stand off at 10 yards with handbags swinging, risk markets didn’t know quite to make out here in the Asian session today as the focus remains on the latest US jobs report tonight, with the initial jobless claims preview from last night not looking too good. Currency markets are swinging back to the USD in the wake of the hold on last night’s ECB meeting with the Australian dollar just breaking back below the 65 cent level again.
Oil markets are still consolidating but are losing some short term momentum 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 lost nearly 0.5% but still remains well above the 23000 point level. Japanese stock markets however are bouncing back on the weaker Yen with the Nikkei 225 moving more than 0.5% higher to 37714 points while trading in the USDPY pair has seen a small bounce back to almost get above the 144 level:
Australian stocks were unable to find any momentum with the ASX200 about to close a few points lower at 8519 points while the Australian dollar was somewhat steady throughout the session, but then drifted back below the 65 handle:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are actually trying to bounceback 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 will focus squarely on tonight’s latest US NFP print.
And one for the Andor fans (although I’d give Syril more credit!)
