Asia looking to open in the red on Wall St lead, Bitcoin bounces, Gold and Silver tumble

US indices drifted lower in Tuesday’s session in choppy action in what has been framed as preliminary month/quarter end selling in the absence of any US tier one economic releases. The Nasdaq was the “least worst” index (-0.16%) held up by another surge in momentum darlings Tesla (TSLA +5.34%) and Nvidia (NVDA +2.61%) which both surged on technicals and momentum chasing in the lack of any fundamental drivers.

FX Markets

The US Dollar Index finished marginally higher on Tuesday as US traders returned from the long weekend. DXY continuing its bounce off the 102 support level and hitting a high of 102.79 after big beat in US Housing Starts. The gains failed to hold in the afternoon though, with DXY following yields lower to eke out a gain for the session.

JPY saw gains vs the USD thanks to a decline in US Treasury yields. USDJPY fell from peaks of 142.25 in the Asian session to lows of 141.22 in the US afternoon as the 10yr yield hit a low of 3.71%. JPY traders attention on Wednesday will turns to the Tankan survey.

AUD and NZD saw notable weakness and were the underperforming currencies, particularly the Aussie after dovish RBA minutes saw the surprise June hike was “finely balanced” with the board also discussing leaving rates unchanged.. The dovish minutes and China growth concerns saw AUDUSD, push well below the 0.6800 support level, while NZDUSD also lagged on China woes ahead of New Zealand trade data Wednesday.

Gold and Silver were both hammered to one-week lows after strong housing data, both breaking the support of lower band of their recent ranges as the US dollar rallied, unlike the USD though neither XAUUSD or XAGUSD reversed course later in the session and settled near their lows.

Another big mover today was Bitcoin, with BTCUSD surging through the 28k level after EDX Markets, a new Cryptocurrency exchange backed by Citadel, Fidelity and Schwab unveiled the launch of its digital asset market on June 20.

Another fairly light economic calendar ahead for Wednesdays session, UK CPI, CAD Retails sales and a scheduled Jerome Powell speech being the main risk events.