Asian stock markets and the US Dollar have stretched above Friday’s closes as the week gets underway in Asia.
- Stock markets look mostly bullish today, as Asian markets follow the rally seen Friday in the US stock market. The HSI and the Nikkei 225 Index are both closing above Friday’s closes, although they are down on the daily opens.
- In the Forex market, the US Dollar is continuing its short-term advance against its long-term bearish trend, but the price now faces key resistance at 101.56 which it may find hard to break. Since the weekly open, the Australian Dollar is the strongest major currency, while the Swiss Franc is the weakest.
- The Yen has declined today on unscheduled bond purchases by the Bank of Japan.
- The Reserve Bank of Australia will be holding a policy meeting tomorrow and is expected to raise its Cash Rate by 0.25%, following the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
- Energies are continuing to rally, with WTI Crude Oil futures hitting near a new 3-month high again Friday, on evidence of supply shortages. This might be of interest to trend traders.
- In the commodities market, Cocoa futures will continue to be interesting on the long side to trend traders, having hit a multi-year high price last Thursday.