Asian share markets are starting the trading week in very mixed fashion with Chinese stocks leading the way while Australian shares have pulled back with the absence of a lead from the US as they have a long weekend. The fallout from the Friday night decision that the Trump regime’s tariffs are actually illegal (do laws actually matter anymore really?) hasn’t had a wide impact yet or at all with mid October “called” as the deadline to stop them with the USD losing ground against most of the major currency pairs after the weekend gap with the Australian dollar extending further above the 65 cent level.
Oil markets are failing to get out of their recent depressed mood with Brent crude staying at the $67USD per barrel level while gold has decisively broken out above the $3400USD per ounce level to make a new record high:
Mainland Chinese share markets are performing relatively well with the Shanghai Composite up 0.4% to stay well above the 3800 point level while the Hang Seng Index has surged more than 2% higher to be at 25590 points. Japanese stock markets are pulling back sharply with the Nikkei 225 down 1.3% at 42139 points with the USDPY pair giving up its recent gains to head below the 147 level:
Australian stocks sold off broadly with the ASX200 closing 0.5% lower to 8927 points while the Australian dollar has pushed slightly further above previous resistance at the 65 handle to hold on to its new weekly high:
S&P futures are closed for the long weekend while Eurostoxx futures are up slightly going into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing the market unable to stay above the 6500 point level with momentum now retracing back to slightly negative levels as it fails to exceed the early August highs:
The economic calendar starts the week very quietly due to the long weekend in the US.