Good morning. I hope you had a great Christmas break. Just a short post today as am taking advantage of quiet markets for some downtime. It should be fairly flat today, with support at 6605 and resistance at 6632.
Asia Overnight from Bloomberg
Asian stocks rose to the highest level in almost three weeks, buoyed by share gains in the U.S. and new bank rules in China that will help spur lending. Palm oil climbed the most since September amid flooding in Malaysia.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index (AS51) added 0.5 percent by 2:44 p.m. in Tokyo, led by gains in Chinese shares. Japanese equities fell, reversing an earlier advance, following a report a man is being tested for Ebola in Tokyo. AirAsia Bhd (AIRA) tumbled as much as 13 percent after one of its planes went missing with 162 people aboard. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.1 percent after the gauge ended last week at a record. Palm oil surged as much as 2.6 percent, while crude snapped a two-day decline.
Global equities are headed for their third straight annual advance, with U.S. shares driving gains the past two weeks after the Federal Reserve said it would exercise patience in raising interest rates. New regulations in China will give banks greater scope to lend by lowering loan-to-deposit ratios. Greece’s prime minister has a final opportunity today to have his presidential candidate confirmed and avoid an early election that would put an international bailout at risk.
“There’s still lots of good, solid fundamental news coming out of the U.S.,” Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners Ltd., which manages about $7.2 billion, said by phone in Wellington. “Equities are still the asset class of choice. It looks like the rally will continue into the end of the year.”
China Stocks
Financial markets from Sydney to Hong Kong resumed trading following the Christmas holiday break. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) surged 4.1 percent, the most since November 2013, and the Hang Seng Index climbed 1.8 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index advanced 1.3 percent, poised for its highest close since January 2010.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp., the nation’s biggest lenders, gained more than 3 percent in Hong Kong, while a mainland gauge of financial shares jumped to a six-year high. A new regulation in China, reported yesterday by the official Xinhua News Agency, will lead to savings held by lenders for non-deposit-taking financial institutions being counted as bank deposits without these holdings being subject to reserve requirements.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 1.5 percent to the highest level in more than a month., while South Korea’s Kospi gauge fell 0.9 percent as Samsung Electronics Co. traded without the right to a dividend. Japan’s Topix gauge lost 0.3 percent after the health ministry said a man who returned from Sierra Leone this month was being tested for the ebola virus.
Greek Vote
The euro rose 0.1 percent to $1.2196, still near a two-year low of $1.2165 reached on Dec. 23. Greece’s parliament will cast ballots at noon in Athens with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras needing 180 votes in the 300-seat chamber to appoint his nominee, Stavros Dimas, as head of state. Failure to elect Dimas will lead to a general election in late January or early February, a few weeks before the nation’s 240 billion euros ($292 billion) bailout expires.
Palm oil futures rose as high as 2,308 ringgit ($660) a metric ton in Kuala Lumpur, advancing for the eighth day in a row. Malaysia, the second-largest producer, is experiencing its worst flooding in decades and more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from the worst-hit areas.
Crude advanced 1.3 percent to $55.43 a barrel amid speculation that an escalating conflict in Libya will help ease a global supply surplus that’s driven oil into a bear market. At Libya’s largest oil port of Es Sider, capable of holding four times the country’s daily production, five storage tanks were on fire yesterday and a government official said strong winds could cause the blaze to spread.
FTSE Outlook
Daily pivot is 6605 so am expect support there, but we have 6590 below that. I imagine it will be relatively flat today. Resistance is 6632, with 6655, 6666 and the top of the 20 day Bianca at 6677 above that. Can see it bouncing around between 6605 and 6635 today and not really doing much (famous last words!).
Thanks Nick 🙂