Asian stocks continue mixed following NAFTA rework

Asian equities saw mixed results in Tuesday's action, with Japanese equities continuing to step softly upwards as Japanese investors continue the improved sentiment from Monday's successful NAFTA rework between the US, Canada, and Mexico which saw Wall Street post relieved gains, but the positive mood remains restrained with Australian indexes down on the day and emerging markets also slightly off their opens.

Chinese stock markets are dark for the whole week in National Day holiday observations, sapping much of the normal daily volume out of the mix, but Japanese stocks managed to put the right foot forward, with the Nikkei 225 up 0.10% and Tokyo's Topix index in the green for 0.40%, while on the other side of the equities coin the Australian ASX 200 index dropped -0.64% and the MSCI broad Asia-Pacific index (excluding Japan) retreated by -0.23%.

Nikkei 225 levels to watch

Japan's leading Nikkei 225 index clipped into a 27-year high this week, touching into 24,450.00, buoyed by renewed investor confidence following the announcement of a successful NAFTA rework, now called USMCA; the bulls have let their grip temporarily slip, however, and the Nikkei is back to 24,225.00 as Tuesday's Asian markets draw to a close. The nearest support currently rests at January's peak of 24,130.00, and its a long way down to the next major resistance level at the 23,000.00 major technical handle, a boundary that kept the Nikkei under wraps for the majority of 2018's first three quarters. With the index tipping into decades-old highs, the only near-term resistance sits at this week's peak of 24,450.00, but buyers will find their work cut out for them with such an overbought technical outlay.