S&P 500, US Dollar, Australian Dollar, Hong Kong – Asia Pacific Market Open
- S&P 500 gained but struggled at resistance, at risk to turning
- Financial markets recovered from risk-averse APAC session
- US markets are offline today, raising volatility risk ahead
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones ended Friday +0.24% and -0.04% respectively in what was a rather mixed session for global equities. The haven-linked US Dollar and similarly-behaving Japanese Yen trimmed some of their gains during the North American trading session. This is also as the sentiment-linked Australian Dollar and New Zealand Dollar regained some lost ground from early on.
During the Asia Pacific trading session, risk aversion engulfed financial markets as China introduced more stringent control over Hong Kong. This has drawn harsh criticism from the United States, which has seen tensions with China already on the rise of late. These woes sent the Hang Seng - the local stocks banchmark - down 5.56 percent, for its worst day since July 2015t.
Then risk aversion cooled and sentiment cautiously recovered throughout the European and North American trading sessions. This is as Anthony Fauci, chief of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that staying locked down for a ‘prolonged period’ is not the way to go. Bets on lockdowns easing and a reinvigoration in economic activity may have rekindled speculative appetite from investors.
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Monday’s Asia Pacific Trading Session
The week starts on a rather quiet note, with US markets offline for the Memorial Day holiday today. This could make for thinner-than-usual liquidity conditions, exacerbating price swings in markets in the event of breaking headlines. A lack of prominent economic event risk also places the focus for currencies on market mood.
S&P 500 Technical Analysis
The S&P 500 has been struggling to push through the peak from April. This makes for a range of resistance between 2944 – 2965. Negative RSI divergence is present and that is a sign of fading upside momentum which could precede a turn lower. If that is the case, immediate support seems to sit below at 2908 followed by 2823.
| Change in | Longs | Shorts | OI |
| Daily | 12% | 7% | 9% |
| Weekly | -5% | 12% | 6% |
S&P 500 – Daily Chart
--- Written by Daniel Dubrovsky, Currency Analyst for DailyFX.com
To contact Daniel, use the comments section below or @ddubrovskyFX on Twitter
