A quick look at today: the Nikkei recovered back to 27,229 after dipping down to 27,100, in a session that followed yesterday's 27,222 close value.
Even though the Nikkei was subdued and remained within tight ranges, investors maintained interest for government debt at all maturities. The iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF has gone up 1.17% to trade at $23.36, thereby indicating that government bond yields were downbeat across the yield curve. The one year Treasury rate fell from 4.9% to 4.3% alongside rising demand and prices. US bond yield gyrations reflect investor sentiment regarding the US economy, with lower yields suggesting investors remain confident about lending to the US government.
Nikkei made an initial break below its 50 day Simple Moving Average at 27,316, a possible indication of a forthcoming negative trend. In contrast, the Nikkei's upper Bollinger Band® is at 28,630 and the lower is 26,837.
According to technical indicators, the Nikkei is positioned for a downward move in the short term.
While the Nikkei was pretty flat today, mixed performances were seen elsewhere as after ending today's session at 7,637, FTSE lost 292.55 points and is trading around 7,344.45. After ending today's session at 7,141.57, CAC lost 255.86 points and is trading around 6,885.71. DAX lost 3.27% today and closed at 15,233.
Data to be released tomorrow might clear up some of the market fog as Japan Exports is projected to outperform its last figure with 7.1%. It previously stood at 3.5%; data will be released today at 23:50 UTC. Japan Trade Balance (Feb) scheduled to come out today at 23:50 UTC. Japan Industrial Production is expected tomorrow at 04:30 UTC.
Trading mostly sideways for 2 months. The Nikkei hit a significant low of 15.42 around 5 months ago, but has since recovered 176,437%.