A sea of red across Asian share markets in response to a selloff on Wall Street overnight although the falls are relatively minor locally as its mainly been tech stocks affected. Markets are awaiting the slew of central bank meetings with the BOE tonight and BOJ tomorrow. USD has strengthened a little against some of the majors with Yen weakening prior to the BOJ meeting while the Australian dollar is declining on weaker commodity prices and the risk off mood that is spreading, currently dicing with the 66 cent level.
Oil markets remain unstable with Brent crude getting back above the $60USD per barrel level while gold is trying to firm above the $4300USD per ounce level as it slowly builds some upside momentum after a small pullback:
Mainland Chinese share markets are seeing a small recovery in afternoon trade with the Shanghai Composite up 0.2% to 3879 points while the Hang Seng Index has pulled back more than 0.3% to just above the 25400 point level. Japanese stock markets are the biggest losers with the Nikkei 225 down 1.3% to 48874 points with the USDPY pair bouncing well above the 155 level:
Australian stocks are falling back slightly in afternoon trade with the ASX200 losing 0.3% to 8563 points while the Australian dollar has p retreated below short term support and is dicing with the 66 cent level against USD:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are struggling to move higher after recent volatility with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing support at the 6800 key level the area to watch in coming sessions:
The economic calendar includes the BOE interest rate meeting and US initial weekly jobless claims.