An uneasy start to the trading week across Asia today as risk markets absorb the weekend Ukraine news, although hope is rising that a Biden/Putin summit could see a bit of heat taken out of the possibility of open war in Ukraine. The USD is losing ground against most of the major currency pairs with the Aussie dollar bouncing back above the 72 handle while Yen safe haven buying slowed down a little. Bitcoin is trying to stabilise here after selling off last, currently just below the $40K level while gold broke through the $1900USD per ounce level in early trade but has now retraced to its Friday finishing position, still looking quite strong at more than a six month high:
Mainland Chinese shares are dropping going into the close with the Shanghai Composite down 0.2% to 3483 points while the Hang Seng Index is losing ground again, down 0.6% to 24177 points. Japanese stock markets are also pulling back with the Nikkei 225 finishing 0.7% lower to close at 26933 points, while the USDJPY pair is weakening as we head into the London trade with safe haven buying in Yen not yet over, as price retraces below the 115 handle:
Australian stocks were the best in the region, as the ASX200 actually gained nearly 0.2% to climb to 7233 points while the Australian dollar bounced back to above the 72 handle, although its still coming up against a lot of resistance building overhead as we head into the London open and still unable to clear the previous weekly high against USD:
Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures have lifted higher as we head into the London open, with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing price looking oversold here below the previous support/resistance zone and still well below the key psychological 4400 point level that was broken last week, with a major correction still on the cards:
The economic calendar starts the week with a slew of flash manufacturing and services PMI surveys across Germany and the UK, but all eyes will be eastern Europe tonight.