Tuesday morning, the S&P 500 Index e-mini futures (ES-H3) was trading higher by 1.25 points to $1514.25 per contract. Traders and investors seemed to be waiting for the State of the Union Address that will be delivered by President Obama tonight. He is expected to address jobs, immigration, gun control, and the economy. Often, the major stock markets will usually trade flat ahead of this speech.
Monday night, the Asian markets all traded higher on the session. The big winner was once again the Nikkei 225 Index (Japan) finishing higher by 1.94 percent. The catalyst for the strong Nikkei is the weaker Japanese Yen. The Japanese government has stated that they want the Nikkei 225 Index to trade around 13,000 by the end of March. Well, it's good to know that they will be targeting that level for the next month and a half. Many of the Japanese ADR's are already overbought, but they can still continue to inflate higher on this type of news. So enjoy this game of hot potato while it lasts. Some Japanese equities that could be in play today include Canon Inc. (CAJ), Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) Honda Motor Co Ltd (HMC), and the iShares MSCI Japan Index (ETF) (EWJ).
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