Asian market preview 08/09/2008

US markets were closed mixed on Friday after investors wrestled with more economic worries, extending sharp losses after a disappointing jobs report but finally got some modest gains as bargain hunters kicked in. Markets fell after Labor Department reported that payrolls shrank more than anticipated, shrank 84,000 compared to the predicted of 75,000 decrease. Unemployment rate rose to 6.1% from 5.7%. However, markets got boosted as investors saw opportunity in the sharp drops during the week and consider that most of the stocks are near the bottom. Speculative buying dominated the markets on Friday as oil continued to fall, settling down $1.66 at $106.23 per barrel. Financials mostly rose as speculation that Lehman Brothers Inc is expected to survive the credit crisis. Over the weekend, government announced that the US government have seized control of 2 troubled mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the biggest step taken by officials to grapple with the ever-persistent credit crisis. The Dow ended up by 32.73 pts or 0.29% to 11,220.96, S&P500 rose 5.48 pts or 0.44% to 1,242.31 while Nasdaq fell 3.16 pts or 0.14% to 2,255.88.

Asian markets may open slightly higher today after US markets seemed to have rebounded slightly. Technical rebound may dominate the market today with bargain hunters may kick in to buy battered stocks from last week. The falling oil prices may finally help and should be able to give some comfort for investors as inflation problem slightly eased. The announcement that US government have taken over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may also give some hope for investors. Oil was recently traded around $106.23ish per barrel, gold traded around $802.80ish and JPY traded around 107.36ish. Nikkei futures were closed at 12210 in CME compared to the close of 12105 here on Friday.

Kospi may open slightly higher today as Wall St mostly rose on Friday on bargain hunting. Kospi have been battered quite bad last week and investors may finally come to their senses and may start buying stocks, which are quite cheap and reasonable now. With the continued weakness in energy market, investors may have less to worry about in inflation sector. Kospi may rise more towards 185ish and may find strong resistance there while it may find a strong support in the 178ish region today.

Hangseng may open higher today as US markets are able to manuver its way through bad job data on Friday and managed to close mostly higher. With the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, investors may find it comforting as the 2 giants finally gets the help they need. Hangseng futures fell by quite a margin after market closed on Friday. Technical rebound and bargain hunting may help Hangseng today. Hangseng may find its resistance at 20500 today and its support at 19700 today. China markets may also play a part in determining whether Hangseng will rise and gets its rebound or may even slide further down as it had broken the 20,000 support point.