Asia Pacific stocks were mixed on Monday morning. The Shanghai composite is up 0.57% at 3,639.77. Overall, the Singapore MSCI down 0.51% at 338.40. Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index down 0.95% at 23,229.00. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 up 0.45% at 28,910.00, while the Topix index is up 0.30% at 1998.0. South Korea’s Kospi up 0.37% to 2988.77. Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 0.92% at 7444.6.

European equities Friday closing. The DAX futures contract in Germany traded up 0.21% at 15884.86, CAC 40 futures down 0.28% at 7153.04 and the UK 100 futures contract in the U.K. up 0.05% at 7,406.90.

In U.S. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.16% at 36338.31. The S&P 500 down 0.26% at 4766.19 and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.66% at 16320.08, NYSE closes flat at 17164.12.

In the Forex market, GBPUSD down 0.20% at 1.3505. The USDJPY up 0.21% at 115.331. The USDCHF up 0.26% at 0.9140. EURUSD down 0.33% at 1.13461, EUR/GBP down 0.13% at 0.84003. The USD/CNY flat at 6.3521 at the time of writing.

In the commodity market U.S. Gold futures down 0.22% at $1,825.34. Elsewhere, Silver futures down 0.58% at $23.152 per ounce, Platinum up 0.31% at $967.00 per ounce, and Palladium down 0.26% at $1896.50.

Crude Oil mix on Monday; Brent crude oil up 0.65% at $78.40 per barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (CLc1) is down 1.83% at $76.10.

In the Cryptocurrency Markets, Bitcoin at 46925.60 down 0.79%, Ethereum down 0.67% at 3805.11, Litecoin at 150.03 down 0.74%, at the time of writing.

TOP STOCKS TO WATCH OUT TODAY:

Twitter Inc. up 3.976% at $44.46, Carmax Inc. up 1.591% at $130.23, Ford Motor Co. up 1.466% to $20.77, Domino’s Pizza Inc. up 1.242% to $564.33, Discovery Inc. down 3.722% to $23.54, Electronic Arts. down 1.904% at $131.90.

Economic news:

US: The United States on Saturday cut Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from access to a duty-free trade program, following through on President Joe Biden’s threat to do so over alleged human rights violations and recent coups.

“The United States today terminated Ethiopia, Mali and Guinea from the AGOA trade preference program due to actions taken by each of their governments in violation of the AGOA Statute,” the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said in a statement.

Biden said in November that Ethiopia would be cut off from the duty-free trading regime provided under the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) due to alleged human rights violations in the Tigray region, while Mali and Guinea were targeted due to recent coups.

The suspension of benefits threatens Ethiopia’s textile industry, which supplies global fashion brands, and the country’s nascent hopes of becoming a light manufacturing hub. It also piles more pressure on an economy reeling from the conflict, the coronavirus pandemic, and high inflation.

Eurozone: The British government has asked public sector managers to test their contingency plans against a worst-case scenario of 25% staff absence as part of efforts to minimise disruption from the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

With daily infection numbers at a record high and people who test positive required to self-isolate for at least seven days, the government expects businesses and public services to face disruption in the coming weeks, it said in a statement.

“So far, disruption caused by Omicron has been controlled in most parts of the public sector, but public sector leaders have been asked to test plans against worst case scenarios of workforce absence of 10%, 20% and 25%,” it said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has asked ministers to work closely with their respective sectors to develop robust contingency plans, said the Cabinet Office, which is coordinating the government’s efforts.

The impact of Omicron on workforces in supply chains, public services and schools is being closely monitored, it said. Mitigations being considered include asking for volunteers such as retired teachers to go back to work.

Important Data: AUSTRALIA AIG Manufacturing Index today at 15:30 previously which was 54.8. US 6-Month Bill Auction today at 11:30 previously which was 0.210%. EURO ZONE Manufacturing PMI (Dec) today at 4:00 this time estimated 58.00, previously which was 58.40. Germany Manufacturing PMI (Dec) today at 3:55 this time estimated 57.90, previously which was 57.40.

TECHNICAL REPORT

GBPUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 1.35020, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.35714 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.34929

EURUSD

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 1.13393, TAKE PROFIT AT 1.13575 AND STOP LOSS AT 1.13207

EURGBP

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 0.8394, TAKE PROFIT AT 0.8381 AND STOP LOSS AT 0.8413

EURJPY

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 130.729, TAKE PROFIT AT 130.984 AND STOP LOSS AT 130.520.

EURO STOXX 50

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 4284.00 TAKE PROFIT AT 4311.00 AND STOP LOSS AT 4261.00

WTI CRUDE OIL

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 75.57 TAKE PROFIT AT 76.38 AND STOP LOSS AT 74.91

GOLD

TRADE SUGGESTION- BUY AT 1823.19, TAKE PROFIT AT 1832.64 AND STOP AT 1813.42

ETHEREUM

TRADE SUGGESTION- SELL AT 3797.49 TAKE PROFIT AT 3751.34 AND STOP AT 3888.18