The first trading session of the week is all about the weekend reaction to what should be strong USD moves but instead King Dollar is rolling over against the undollars except gold with the Canadian Loonie pushing higher on speculation Governor Trudeau (sic) is about to resign. Chinese stocks remain under stress despite promises of support from the PBOC with Japanese stock markets playing catchup with no positive news. The Australian dollar is trying to gain traction on the weaker USD but is barely holding above the 62 cent level.
Oil futures are steady as they hold on to their Friday night gains with Brent crude holding above the $76USD per barrel level while gold is rolling over again after failing to hold its break out above local resistance at the $2630USD per ounce level:
Mainland Chinese share markets are still looking weak as they slide lower into the afternoon session with the Shanghai Composite down more than 0.5% to push below the 3200 point level while the Hang Seng Index has lost a similar amount at 19661 points. Japanese stock markets are playing catchup as they reopen from the NY break with the Nikkei 225 closing more than 1.3% lower at 39349 points while the USDPY pair has broken out of its recent funk to climb above last week’s finish at just below the 158 level:
Australian stocks are again the best performing in the region but only by default with the ASX200 putting in a scratch session to close at 8257 points while the Australian dollar has managed to push slightly above the 62 handle over the weekend USD weakness after making a new yearly low just after Xmas:
S&P and Eurostoxx futures are trying to lift higher over the weekend gap as we head into the London session with the S&P500 four hourly chart showing momentum nicely out of its oversold condition as it now tries to tackle short term resistance levels around the 6000 point zone:
The economic calendar ramps up with German inflation numbers and US factory orders tonight.