IG Markets Afternoon thoughts

IG Markets Afternoon thoughts

Across Asia, regional markets are shrugging off the weak close on US market to be higher across the board, seemingly boosted by a stronger-than-expected set of Chinese economic figures. The GDP and industrial production prints showed the economy rose faster-than-anticipated in the second quarter. In trade, the Shanghai Composite is the top performer, up 1.2% while the Kospi, Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 are all up between 0.4% and 0.9%.

In Australia, the ASX 200 is currently 06% firmer at 4521 having bounced well off its earlier session lows of 4487 Modest losses in the US overnight saw the local market weaker for most of the morning but a robust set of monthly economic data out of China soothed investor nerves and enticed some buyers back into the market. Gains for the day are being led by the healthcare, energy, industrials and material sectors while the heavyweight financial sector is modestly higher.

It’s good to see some green on the screen. The big question will be how long it lasts though. There were signs that risk assets were starting to bounce overnight as equity markets in Europe and the US bounced strongly from their lows and the EUR/USD staged a pretty dramatic intraday reversal.

On top of this, the release of the Chinese data at midday seems to have been a bit of a buying trigger, with the market moving significantly higher since. The Q2 GDP print and industrial production figures were ahead of market expectations, relieving some concerns that China was slowing down too much. It looks like their headed for a soft landing, which is what they have been trying to orchestrate since tightening began. We must remember that the Chinese are purposely trying to slow their economy, unlike most of the Western world that would kill to be in the same position as the emerging giant.

Material names have been the biggest beneficiaries given they’re leveraged the most to the Chinese growth story. The materials index and BHP Billiton are actually starting to look quite bullish; they look to be in the final stages of forming the right hand shoulders of bullish inverted headed and shoulders patterns.

ENDS

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