Month: February 2013

  • Charts I’m Watching: Feb 7, 2013

    Nice little intra-day sell-off again yesterday, culminating in a last minute positive close — another shake-and-bake by your friendly neighborhood market makers to separate you from your hard-earned money. Look for more of the same today.

    Today’s news is all about currencies.  Draghi’s comments are successfully taking some of the bloom off euro’s today.  The euro is up 11% since Draghi’s “whatever it takes” speech last July 26.  What has it gained them?

    Oil got a little cheaper — at least through the end of the year.  Germany might not care, but  Spain, Italy and France exporters are feeling the pinch at a time when they can ill afford it.

    IMHO, this will set up a battle of political wills between the haves and have nots in the EZ.  Bucking the global trend and trying to achieve nominal growth without more accommodative monetary policy is doomed from the get-go.

    The EURUSD chart shows how the market feels this will ultimately be resolved.

    Though the pair will likely find support right about here — an important Fib line (red .618) and the intersection of two prominent channel lines.

    The top of the big falling white channel is still out there as an upside target.  Timing would determine price, of course, since the channel features a fairly steep slope.  But, the range currently includes the red .886 at 1.3995 (the top of the purple channel), the white .500 at 1.3956 and the purple .618 at 1.3832 (the purple midline.)

     

    SPX isn’t enjoying the plunge in the EURUSD.  I’m taking an intra-day short position with the channel line cross at 1508 with a target of 1497.29 – 1499.29 — the .886/.786 of the latest run up.  Charts in a few.

    60-min RSI shows likely downside to at least the red midline and white channel bottom.  This likely translates into the .886 at 1497.29, but the purple midline is way down at 1492, so I’ll give it some rope (and reconsider our upside target) if SPX dips below 1495.

     

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  • Is it Soup Yet?

    The market’s selling off a bit this morning as the EURUSD tests its channel’s lower bound.

    And, the dollar takes a breather after a nice three day gain.

    The S&P has officially hit only one of the three Fib levels we targeted weeks ago, but came within .28 of the second yesterday after inching up past the previous 1514.41 high to 1514.96.

    While the whole steaming pile could go splat any second, there’s still a good chance of first bagging the 1518.57 Fib.  But, to get there, we’ll need several more ingredients:

    (1) one last bounce from EURUSD…

    (2) a meaningful reaction for DX off the white channel top and .382 Fib…

    (3) these gentlemen to find some work…

    (4) or these bums to get to work.

                                                                               Crisis averted / Lisa Benson, Washington Post Writers Group

    continuing…

  • Charts I’m Watching: Feb 5, 2013

    The dollar is taking a breather after a strong reversal off the latest .886 and channel bottom, but appears ready to break out.

    The EURUSD back-tested the broken channel line and rising wedge lower bound, and is likely about done.

    SPX fell 19-pts after we shorted last Friday.  We positioned for an intra-day bounce, but SPX added only 4 points before falling back to complete a little H&S pattern at the close.

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  • Charts I’m Watching: Feb 4, 2013

    The US dollar bounced off the .886 of its Sep – Nov 2012 run…again.  This is the fourth time it has found support in the 78.725 – 79 range, though each subsequent bounce has been lower than the previous one.

    The result is a descending triangle that arrives at the bottom of an uptrend (the white channel below) and a 2nd back-test of the latest channel (red) that was originally broken out of on Jan 2.

    The primary driver has been euro zone weakness, with the EURUSD back-testing the midline of the white channel after a bull run that equaled that of this past Aug-Sep.

    Though, the yen is also pitching in — reaching our secondary price target well in advance of the forecasted date range.

    SPX was off over 10 points this morning, making our decision to short Friday at 1514 appear to have been the right move.  SPX is heading toward the next lower purple channel line, where it will likely get at least a bounce in the 1500-1501 range or the .886 Fib at 1498.77.

    The question is whether the market is just taking a breather or beginning something more significant.  I’ll spend the next hour or so examining the road ahead.

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  • Charts I’m Watching: Feb 1, 2013

    ORIGINAL POST:  9:15 AM

    E-mini futures are up big overnight, but have yet to exceed Wednesday’s high.

    A positive revision in BLS’s Nov and Dec employment numbers makes 2012 look better than it did, but I’m not sure how it helps today’s 12.3 million unemployed or 8 million underemployed or 2.4 million marginally attached…

     

    Markit Mfg PMI actually a little lower than Jan 24 flash numbers.

    Verdict: not chasing this ramp job unless it exceeds recent highs — which I don’t believe it will, at least not from this news.

    Remember, we have Reuters/U of Michigan Consumer Sentiment coming up at 9:55 and ISM’s Mfg Report on Business at 10:00.

    Watch the channel midline here…

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