Australia’s ASX Hits a 4 month Low

Asian markets traded rather mixed this morning with Australia’s ASX hitting a 4 month low and shares in Japan leading the markets lower. Investors are flocking to safe-haven assets as worry grows about the US election for president.

The new jitters over the race to the White House started anew about a week ago after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it was looking into new emails related to the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state. Since the break of the news, some polls indicate the election is closer than thought, especially in key battleground states. Some polls show the Republican candidate, wildcard Donald Trump to be gaining ground or leading.

Japan’s headline bourse was down nearly two percent today and the Topix in Tokyo was down over two percent as a stronger yen put pressure on export companies. The yen, a safe-haven asset, was strengthening against the Dollar trading as high as 102.80 this morning. As of 9:20 am HK time, the USD/JPY Forex market was at 102.87.

This push exporters like Toyota, down over four percent, Sony and Mazda, which sank over six percent, lower this morning.

Across the Korean Straight, the Kospi Composite Index was down 0.2 percent. In Australia, the ASX 200 was also lower, hitting a fresh four month low. The energy sector tracked oil lower, falling 1.5 percent and the heavily weighted financial sub-sector lost over 1.3 percent.

The nation’s Big Four banks were all lower with NAB leading the way, down over 5.5 percent. Shares of the bank had gone ex-dividend as the bank had announced a dividend of AUD 0.00 per share last week. The other banks like ANZ, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank of Australia were all lower this morning.

Stocks on mainland China bucked today’s downtrend. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was up 0.2 percent. In Taiwan, the Taiex was also up over 0.2 percent. In China the Shanghai Composite added 0.2 percent and the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index added nearly 0.3 percent.

US elections are adding to market volatility and will be the main driver into next week. Especially as Europe then the United States opens. There should be volatility with the Dollar Forex crossings as well as the Sterling Dollar and the euro. Voters go to the polls on November 8.