Risk sentiment on the rocks ahead of European trading

March 13, 2025 at 04:57AM

In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index was up around 1.4% at the highs earlier today but have now pared gains to be up by just 0.2%. This comes as US futures are also slumping with tech shares on the backfoot after having led the bounce yesterday. S&P 500 futures are down 0.4% with Nasdaq futures down 0.6%.

The overall chart still shows that this has been a rough week for US stocks in general. The S&P 500 is still down roughly 3% this week despite yesterday’s bounce with the Nasdaq also in a similar spot.

The break of the key trendline support in both indices remain the standout development since last week. And that continues to pile further downside pressure amid concerns over Trump’s tariffs and a softening US economy.

In FX, USD/JPY is back down slightly from 148.00 earlier to 147.85 currently. The dollar is steadier elsewhere but remains mixed overall on the week. EUR/USD is keeping closer to 1.0900 still while GBP/USD continues to nudge higher towards 1.3000.

Meanwhile, commodity currencies are holding little changed overall this week against the greenback. AUD/USD is pretty much flat at 0.6310 while USD/CAD is just marginally higher on the week after yesterday’s fall, trading at 1.4385 at the moment.

All in all, the bounce in risk yesterday is not really hinting at a turnaround in sentiment just yet. The market mood remains very fragile and the charts are also suggesting that there is scope for more downside pressure in the short-term.

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.