Nikkei
Asian stocks were mixed in today’s trading with the Nikkei 225 closing 2.13% or 478.03 points lower at 21,948.16. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.11% or 3.400 points at 2,991.329. The Hang Seng Index is also trading higher by around 0.50% or 126.0 points at 26,817.6.
Positive news out of China may have helped propel mainland Chinese stocks higher. According to Chinese Information Technology Ministry official Zhang Kejian, 30% of small businesses have gone back to normal operations. PBoC Vice Governor Liu Guoqiang also said in a statement that the central bank is ready to provide liquidity and support growth.
Meanwhile, the Hang Seng Index may have benefitted from the government’s bold fiscal stimulus program which involves giving out 10,000 KHD to 7 million people.
As for currencies, AUDUSD dropped to new 11-year lows at 0.6541. NZDUSD tapped new 4-month lows at 0.6282 on mixed economic data from New Zealand and worried remarks from the country’s finance minister. USDJPY is also under some selling pressure after US President Donald Trump’s news conference addressing the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in the US.
Read our Best Trading Ideas for 2020.
On the hourly time frame, we can see that AUDUSD spent the Asian session trading in a consolidation. This follows after a strong drop. Consequently, a bearish flag chart pattern has formed. In forex trading, this is considered as a bearish continuation signal. A close below today’s low and open price at 0.6542 could mean that AUDUSD may drop to new decade-lows. The next support level for the currency pair is at 0.6300 where it bottomed on January 2009.
On the other hand, a strong bullish close above 0.6561 may indicate that there are buyers in the market. It may also invalidate the bearish chart pattern and AUDUSD could soon trade higher to resistance around the 0.6600 handle where it topped on February 26.