The stock selloff wasn’t as wide here in Asia, following yet another reversal on Wall Street overnight, with the ASX200 the standout, looking set to finish the week below 5900 points. Currency markets are very flat following last night’s volatility around the ECB meeting, while gold is seemingly in retreat mode, breaking below the $1950USD per ounce level:
In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite is putting in a scratch session to be down 0.2% at 3228 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index is actually bouncing back, up 0.4% to 24419 points. Japanese stock markets were the best performers on local data and good COVID news with the Nikkei 225 rising nearly 0.6% to 23366 points while the USDJPY pair is remaining flat at the 106 handle:
The ASX200 was down nearly 1% at one point, but is recovering to be down 0.6% going into the close at 5868 points, as the Australian dollar continues to hold on a steady course of going nowhere, still stuck at the Monday morning starting point at the 72.80 level against USD:
Eurostoxx and S&P futures are mixed, with the S&P500 four hourly chart indicating another possible rollover back towards the intraweek low at the 3300 point level – we’ll have to see how many kitchen tables and desks are flipped by amateur traders tonight first:
The economic calendar is very Euro-centric tonight with German inflation and a Eurogroup meeting but there’s also US monthly inflation and an oil rig count to finish the week off.
Have a good weekend and stay safe!