The Israel-Iran war continues to dominate risk markets as the TACO-in-Chief threatens to join in with bunker busters and demands unconditional surrender. The dealmaker in action! The USD remains weak against almost all the undollars while domestic Japanese data is keeping Yen weak after the BOJ taper plan announcement. The Australian dollar is hovering around the 65 cent level despite the risk off mood.
Oil markets remain understandably high on the continued strikes with Brent crude lifting still above the $75USD per barrel level while gold is also holding on at its recent losses as it stays below the $3400USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are somewhat steady going into the afternoon session as the Shanghai Composite remains slightly below the 3400 point level while the Hang Seng Index has fallen sharply, down 1.3% as resistance builds at the 24000 point level. Japanese stock markets are pushing higher again with the Nikkei 225 moving up more than 0.7% to 385815 points while trading in the USDPY pair has seen an extension above the 145 level:
Australian stocks have slipped again with the ASX200 closing 0.1% lower at 8531 points while the Australian dollar has maintained a relatively strong position at or around the 65 handle despite the war tensions:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures remain surprisingly robust although the latter are down slightly with the S&P500 four hourly chart previously showing a desire to remain above the recent highs at the 6000 point level:
The economic calendar includes UK inflation and US house sales and initial weekly jobless claims.