Despite the weekend Middle East escalation oil dropped lower on the reopening for the week in European and US Sunday evening/Monday morning Asia trade. It managed to retrace much of its opening loss, not all, and as I post is dribbling back to the downside again.

Major forex rates were relatively subdued. USD/JPY had a 30 or so point range, held in check by the imminent Bank of Japan statement due around this time tomorrow. AUD/USD caught a bid after much better than expected m/m retail sales growth, the quickest since January, and firming the prospects for a November 7 Reserve Bank of Australia rate hike. NZD/USD tracked Oz higher. The Australian government walked away from a potential FTA with the EU after negotiations stalled over insurmountable sticking points. AUD/USD shrugged this off.

Asian equity markets:

  • Japan’s Nikkei 225 -1.2%

  • China’s Shanghai Composite -0.3%

  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng -0.5%

  • South Korea’s KOSPI +0.4%

  • Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 -0.4%

oil wrap chart 30 October 2023

(This chart is from our charting app, which is free and can be found at this link)