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OVERNIGHT MARKET SNAPSHOT FOR FRIDAY 21/02/20 (as at 8:15am AEDT)
- SPI200 (Mar) overnight futures up 3 pts to 7113
- SP500 down 11.41 pts to 3374.74
- NASDAQ down 66.21 pts to 9750.97
- Dow Jones down 128.05 pts to 29,219.98
- FTSE100 down 20.38 pts to 7436.64
- DAX30 down 125 pts to 13,664.00
- GOLD futures (April Contract) up $10.80 to $1622.60 an ounce
- COPPER futures (Comex May) down $0.015 to $2.591 a pound
- OIL futures US Session (Nymex Mar) up $0.49 to $53.78 a barrel
- CRB Index down 0.77 pts to 174.73
- AUDUSD trading at 0.6618
- EURUSD trading at 1.0788
- GBPUSD trading at 1.2880
- USDJPY trading at 112.1000
- USD Index US Session (ICE March) up 0.198 to 99.795
US Indexes fell in late morning trade as fears the coronavirus is picking up steam gave traders an excuse to lock away some gains. A Global Times report said a central Beijing hospital reported 36 new cases as of Thursday which triggered a fresh wave of selling across the board. The news added to earlier reports that the number of new cases climbed in South Korea while Japan reported two new deaths and research suggested that the virus was spreading faster than previously thought. Safe haven assets were the place to go with Gold continuing the move up and Bond prices lifting. Traders continue to wonder whether they have seen the worst of the virus and whether they need to re-assess the impact to global growth…either way, Indexes are strong and it will not take much prompting to trigger a selloff as every man and his trading dog are positioned long. Price did manage to find the usual strength from the ‘support team’ into the close to limit the damage. The DOW closed down 0.44% while the broader SP500 was down 0.38% and the Nasdaq ended down 0.67% for the session. In Europe, major Indexes moved lower following on from the pressure in the Asian session on concerns that the virus is more contagious than originally thought. China recently made a change in the diagnostic method so traders are now concerned that the daily tallies may not be accurate as mixed messages filter out of the nation on social networks.
The USD Index saw buyers continuing to support dips as price closed up at the highs. We expect the move up to continue on a safe haven bid until traders become confident that the virus is under control. The EURUSD was choppy as sellers continued to smack price lower. Buyers continued to soak up selling pressure around the 1.0785 zone but it looks like it will not last much longer and we expect to see a squeeze lower of buyers off the level. The GBPUSD fell to shrug off better than expected UK retail sales as traders and analysts re-assess the potential for a big increase in fiscal spending next month. The AUDUSD was hit hard on the virus news and a miss on employment data early in the Asian session and price never recovered. The issue now is whether there is worse to come on the virus front and whether the RBA may need to cut rates to add stimulus. The USDJPY extended the gains from the previous spike in a move that started in the Asian session and continued through to the US close. Safe haven YEN buying could not cool the bullish move in the USD.
SPOT GOLD was bought up through the European session into the US as safe haven buyers were out supporting price. Gold in Aussie Dollar terms did better as the AUD came under pressure and spiked lower on virus concerns. Crude Oil was heading higher until the release of inventory data which came out weaker than expected leading price to give up the gains from earlier trade. Price ended relatively flat but held the momentum higher. Copper got caught up in the virus concerns as traders moved price lower as they continue to assess demand. Price cleared out some buyers ion the previous session but could not push higher as price was weighed down with expectations that things may get worse before they get better.
Cryptocurrencies were hammered lower during the Asian session only to continue to come under pressure during the US session. Bitcoin is currently trading at $9551.8 down 6.19% while Ethereum is at $255.11 down 8.56% and Ripple was hit hard and is at $0.26928 down 11.00%.
The ASX200 rallied strong from the open yesterday being helped by a mixed employment report which spiked price to the 7200 zone before some negative news on the coronavirus took some heat out of the buying. In the end the index ended up 17.9 points to 7162.5 to close at new all time highs. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones by 633 to 560 and 328 ended unchanged.
The ASX200 is expected to open flat as the SPI200 bounced back into the close from the selloff into equities during the US session.
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ECONOMIC DATA OUT TODAY (AEDT)
AUD Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI 9am
JPY CPI Data 10:30am
EUR French Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI 7:15pm
EUR German Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI 7:30pm
EUR Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI 8pm
GBP Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI 8:30pm
EUR CPI Data 9pm
CAD Retail Sales Data 12:30pm
USD Flash Manufacturing and Services PMI 1:45am
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SPI200 INTRADAY LEVELS TO WATCH
