by Martin Armstrong
Armstrong Economics
With the US markets having provided the momentum for the opening it was not surprising that Asian equity markets opened with a reluctant bid. Earlier in the day we had heard from the IEA regarding oil supplies and although this was still a discussion point in Tokyo it needed additional enthuses to lift markets higher. This was eventually found in the JPY when again, weakness led to movement and eventually we were back trading with a 109 handle. Eventually, we saw the Nikkei back in the black closing +0.4% higher on the day. Sentiment alone was insufficient to lift the Hang Seng and that market closed down 0.7%. Shanghai was to close almost unchanged with the currency being marked a little weaker (at 6.4959).