Biggest Spike In Nikkei 225 As Japanese GDP Released

The markets have opened with a similar volatility as seen last week, with the Asian stocks gaining as Japan gives its final GDP numbers. This is the biggest Asian stock rally we’ve seen in 3 weeks.

The Japanese GDP figure rose by 1 per cent in Q1, which beats expectations of a 0.9 per cent growth for that period. Annual growth is at 4.1 per cent in Japan, beating the 3.5 per cent estimations and vindicating Japan’s groundbreaking monetary policies.


Investors across Asia have been skeptical as to the success of PM Shinzo Abe’s measures to reverse the health of the economy there, although these new figures have pleased the markets as you can see from the big spike in the Nikkei 225 index.

Stocks
The Nikkei 225 was the biggest mover with a 3.86 per cent spike on the growth figures released in the overnight session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng grew 0.44 per cent on the release of some Chinese data releases this weekend. The South Korean Kospi rose 0.32 per cent and the Australian S& P and the Shanghai Composite are both closed for public holidays.

Forex
The USD continues its bullish trend against most of its pairings with a 0.10 per cent gain against the EUR and a 0.15 per cent gain against the GBP. The USD gained 0.77 per cent against the JPY as the Yen weakens on the positive GDP numbers. The AUD was also down 0.82 per cent against the USD pushed by the Chinese releases.

Commodities
The stronger dollar kept the commodity prices away from the bottom with gold and silver up 0.16 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively. Crude oil carried on rising on the strong US jobs releases and natural gas was up 0.17 per cent as traders ignored the recent supply data.

Today
A busy morning across Europe with some key data releases such as French and Italian production releases. The later we switch focus across to the US where FOMC member Bullard will be speaking. You can expect a highly volatile trading week with plenty of opportunities to profit from directional binary option trades.