Macro Afternoon

02 Mar 2022, 05:30 by Chris Becker · MacroBusiness

See the latest Australian dollar analysis here:

A volatile session on Asia stock markets today, reflecting the risk off mood overnight particularly in European shares with traders reacting to oil prices – both WTI and Brent crude – over the $100USD per barrel level. Currencies are seeing continued USD strength, although commodity currencies like the Australian dollar are holding steady in the wake of the war-spike on commodity markets. Gold remains strong above the $1900USD per ounce level while Bitcoin is continuing to consolidate here well above the $44K level:

Mainland Chinese shares are putting in a small pullback with the Shanghai Composite currently down 0.3% to 3479 points while the Hang Seng Index is selling off again, down more than 1% to 22536 points. Japanese stock markets are doing even worse though, taking back all their recent gains with the Nikkei 225 dropping 1.6% to 26400 points as the USDJPY pair actually found a bid and bounced back above the 115 handle after dropping all week so far:

Australian stocks rallied despite a gap down to start the session in a poor state with the ASX200 managing to maintain itself above the 7000 point level, closing 0.3% higher at 7116 points. Meanwhile the Australian dollar is holding on to its recent gains, sitting here just above the mid 72 level and in a holding pattern as the London session gets underway:

Eurostoxx and Wall Street futures are again lacking in confidence with a very small dip higher for the latter as the S&P500 four hourly chart clearly shows resistance building up at the key 4400 point level after failing to translate this short term bottom pattern into something meaningful:

The economic calendar continues with the latest German unemployment and Euro CPI flash prints, then a few Fed speeches to watch out for later in the morning.

Chris Becker