Another mixed day for Asian stock markets without a clear lead from Wall Street overnight as political machinations and a few central bank speeches within the region. The USD was largely unchanged although some commodity currencies moved higher while gold and the Australian dollar remained steady after holding on to their post weekend gap gains.
Oil markets are steady with Brent crude holding just below the $65USD per barrel level while gold is consolidating around the $4100USD per ounce level after recently making a new monthly high:
Mainland Chinese share markets are falling back going into the close with the Shanghai Composite retreating just below the 4000 point barrier while the Hang Seng Index is actually moving higher, currently up 0.6% to 26860 points. Japanese stock markets are in a slight retreat with the Nikkei 225 down some 0.3% to stay below the 51000 point level with the USDPY pair has breached the 154 handle to extend its big weekend gap up move:
Australian stocks are treading water with the ASX200 down around 0.1% at 8818 points while the Australian dollar has stayed above the 65 cent level against USD but is looking weaker in the short term:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are steadying but moving higher going into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing the market wanting to get back to the 6900 point level:
The economic calendar is relatively quiet tonight with German inflation and a couple of Fed and ECB bank members speeches.