Asia midday: HK & SG equities lead; US rally stalls at resistance, Dow Jones (Chart of the day)

[Redator]

The US stock market appeared unfazed by renewed tariff headlines on Wednesday, 9 July. Major indices broke out from a two-day consolidation, led by a 2.8% surge in artificial intelligence giant Nvidia. The company made history as the first to reach a US$4 trillion market valuation. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.7%, the S&P 500 gained 0.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average trailed with a 0.5% advance.

Despite the gains, all three indices stalled at key short-term resistance levels: S&P 500 at 6,290, Nasdaq 100 at 22,920, and Dow Jones Industrial Average at 44,560.

New tariff letters target Brazil

US President Trump issued another batch of tariff letters, this time imposing a steep 50% levy on Brazil, marking the highest tariff rate announced thus far. Brazil is notably the first country outside the original list of targeted trade partners since April’s “reciprocal tariff” plan. The move appears to signal a broader warning to BRICS nations, with India also receiving a warning of a potential 10% tariff.

Asia stock markets mixed; Singapore equities lead

Asia Pacific markets showed mixed performance. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.6% amid uncertainty over trade talks with the US. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index advanced 0.5%, holding above its 50-day moving average at 23,690. Singapore’s Straits Times Index extended its bullish streak, rising 0.4% to hit a new record high of 4,074.

Read more in our previous Chart of the day – Singapore 30 bullish trend remains intact

US dollar weakens; Aussie and Gold gain

The recent rebound in the US dollar has started to lose steam. The US Dollar Index posted bearish reactions for two consecutive sessions near the 20-day moving average resistance at 97.70.

In Asia trading today, the Australian dollar outperformed with a 0.24% gain against the greenback, followed by the British pound (+0.17%) and the euro (+0.14%).

Gold (XAU/USD) also benefited from the softer dollar, recovering from a -0.6% drop on Wednesday to gain 0.3% intraday. It traded at US$3,325, well above the previous session's low of US$3,282.

Economic data releases

Fig 1: Key data for today’s Asia mid-session (Source: MarketPulse)

Chart of the day – Dow Jones Industrial Average at risk of a minor corrective decline

Fig 2: US Wall Street 30 CFD Index minor trend as of 8 July 2025 (Source: TradingView)

Since hitting its recent 3 July intraday high of 44,914, the price actions of the US Wall Street 30 CFD Index (a proxy of the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures) have traded sideways, and several short-term technical elements are suggesting an imminent potential minor corrective decline sequence within its medium-term uptrend phase.

Firstly, the US Wall Street 30 CFD Index has continued to trade below the median line of a minor ascending channel in place since the 19 June low of 41,787. Secondly, the hourly RSI momentum indicator has just flashed out a bearish divergence condition near its overbought region, which indicates upside momentum has started to ease (see Fig 2).

Watch the 44,560 short-term pivotal resistance, and a break below 44,170 is likely to trigger a minor corrective decline sequence to expose the next intermediate support at 43,800/43,600 (also close to the 20-day moving average) in the first step.

On the flip side, a clearance above 44,560 invalidates the bearish scenario to resume the impulsive bullish up move sequence to retest the current all-time high of 45,100 printed in December 2024 before the next intermediate resistance comes in at 45,450/45,520 (Fibonacci extension cluster levels).

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