Asia Pacific Markets Wrap Talking Points
- Japanese apparel-retailing giant Uniqlo weighs on Nikkei 225, Asia stocks mixed
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia boosts ASX 200. Yen gains hint risk aversion
- S&P 500 may drop on technical signals. Twitter, Harley-Davidson earnings next
Find out what retail traders’ equities buy and sell decisions say about the coming price trend!
Equities traded mixed during Asia Pacific markets on Tuesday after a similar performance on Wall Street. There, energy shares drove most of the gains in the S&P 500 as crude oil prices rallied on Iranian supply disruption concerns.
The Nikkei 225, Japan’s benchmark stock index, was little changed around -0.05% heading into the close. Fast Retailing Co., parent company of apparel-retailing giant Uniqlo, declined more than 2.7%. This may have been due to fears of higher oil prices increasing shipping costs and thus hurting profits.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite declined 0.35% as the KOSPI traded relatively flat. Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 traded more than 0.7% higher on the other hand, guided by gains in banks which account for about a 22.9% weight in the index. Commonwealth Bank of Australia shares rose about 1%.
Taking a look at currencies, there appeared to be signs of risk aversion. The anti-risk Japanese Yen aimed little higher while the sentiment-linked Australian and New Zealand Dollars fell slightly behind. AUD/USD is awaiting tomorrow’s inflation report.
S&P 500 futures are still little changed overall with a slight bias lower as markets continue eyeing the US earnings season. Ahead Twitter Inc. and Harley-Davidson first quarter reports are due. The latter may bring up concerns about recent revived threats of an EU-US trade war.
S&P 500 Technical Analysis
Taking a closer look at S&P 500 futures to show afterhours trade shows concerning technical developments. Negative RSI divergence is accompanying a Rising Wedge bearish reversal pattern. The former indicates fading upside momentum. As such, these may precede a turn lower with near-term support at 2900.
S&P 500 Daily Chart
Chart Created in TradingView
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--- Written by Daniel Dubrovsky, Junior Currency Analyst for DailyFX.com
To contact Daniel, use the comments section below or @ddubrovskyFX on Twitter
