Asian market preview 20/05/2008

US markets ended the session mixed last night after a pullback in tech sector erased most of the day's gains. SanDisk caused the tech sector to soften last night after saying that the rising energy prices hurt sales as people curbed their spending to pay more for oil. Financial sector was hurt too after Citigroup reduced earnings estimates on Wall St biggest firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Bros. The sector which gets a boost last night with record breaking oil prices is oil players such as Exxon and Chevron which climbed almost 2%. Positive news came from Conference Board's leading economic indicator which climbed 0.1% in April, following the similar rise in March. Investors are relieved and believe more that the economy is bound for a rebound in second half of the year. Dow finished up by 41.36 pts or 0.32% to 13028.16 after rising more than 150 pts during the day. S&P500 climbed 1.28 pts or 0.09% to 1426.63 while Nasdaq fell 12.76 pts or 0.5% to 2516.09.

Asian markets may open around yesterday's close today after a mixed session on Wall St last night. High crude oil price may not bring much joy to the markets today as it sparked more inflationary problems. Tech sector may be lower today after more worries came out from the US regarding the damage made by high energy and commodity prices. Oil was recently traded around $127.25ish per barrel, gold traded around $905.50ish and JPY traded around 104.30ish. Nikkei futures was closed at 14300 in CME last night compared to the close of 14255 here yesterday.

Kospi may open slightly higher today around 243-244ish but the gains may not last very long today. Kospi needed fresh and strong market moving news to get past the 247 level to get towards 250. Today however, may be another mixed session with high oil prices weighing down the market. Tech sector may also be dragged after SanDisk reported bad sales in April. Market may face lots of profit taking issues if it come towards 246ish level.

Hangseng may open rather flat with a slight upwards bias around 25700 today. However, high oil prices may eat away the uptrend today and may make investors enjoy some profit after Hangseng index market recover towards 25800 level. Hangseng may still turn to China markets today and market volume may still be quite thin as there are lacking fresh new leads to push market higher towards the 26000 level. For futures market, it may face lots of selling pressure when it comes towards 25800 level but it will face a strong support down at 25500 level.