As we have written in the past years, most countries are artificially pushing down their exchange rates in an attempt to obtaining competitive advantages at the expense of others. And if they all manipulate their own currencies, all sides will end up losing out. At the EURO summit, as well at other Central Banker policy meetings as of late, we have heard over and over that currency wars are impacting policies and inherent competitiveness issues.
Category Archives: Technical
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts
History shows that US equity markets in the year after a Presidential election move higher into the first week in February in conjunction with fourth quarter reports, weaken thereafter until the end of March and moves higher thereafter. Given political events scheduled in the US during the next two months, history is repeating. Continue reading
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts
Global Equity Markets, what next? Overheated? Or much more to go? While funds continue to flow into stocks, as we were forecasting since mid-December, money continues to move away from the bond market; particularly treasuries that have seen yields spike almost 400 basis points since the start of December.
Treasury yields have broken firmly above a long-term declining trend line that had remained intact for almost two years, diverging from the positive trend of equity markets over the same period.
Market Commentary LTRO, EUR, GOLD & SILVER
We see the LTRO repayments likely to boost money-market rates, leading to more EUR/US$ strength in the near term. The EURO extended a gain versus the US$ to trade as high as EUR/US$1.3464, extending an 11-month high set earlier in the session. We maintain our Q1 price target of EUR/US$ 1.3850. Continue reading
Morning Market Commentary AAPL, SPX, SSEC, N-225, DAX, CAC, FTSE
APPLE (NASDAQ AAPL US$ 469 pre-open ind.) We maintain our 3 – 6 months price target for AAPL at US$ 380.
We had a few interesting phone calls over the past 2 months from some clients, but also news reporters, and other critics, who used to receive our research, and/or download it from Bloomberg, but who do not pay us for our services, however, have put a lot of emphasis on taking the time and read and battle our forecasts and research, particularly as of late related to Apple and our call on October 2nd, to “sell/short” the beloved stock.
Let’s look at the facts, since then, we correctly predicted AAPL to fall from then US$ 685 to US$ 520, based initially on chart technical outlook changing. Then, when AAPL hit our price target of US$ 520, we wrote in several daily reports, besides updates on Apple, that we were expecting AAPL to recover back towards US$ 585, which it subsequently did within the ten days after our US$ 585 target call.
On December 5th, we reiterated our initial call, which was based in part on chart technical traditional Fibonacci basics, but also complementing the chart technical aspects with market research and looking at the dynamics that existed for AAPL’s most direct competitors, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, and considering all of our combined research, and logical sense, that AAPL’s investors euphoria had been fading.
Morning Market Commentary – SPX, DJIA, N-225, SSEC, FTSE, DAX, SI, CAC, GAS
Time for a pause for global equities? The S&P 500 has posted gains in each of the past five sessions, pushing the large cap index well into overbought territory. Being overbought doesn’t necessarily conclude the positive trend, particularly on a longer-term time scale, but it does increase the probability of buyer exhaustion, leading into a retracement of some magnitude to follow. The S&P 500 Index is presently testing the upper limit of the rising trend channel that has been in place since the mid-November low. Relative Strength Index for the S&P 500 is now surpassing 70. Continue reading
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts
Two unexpected events last week triggered a surprising upside move in equity markets last week, China’s $150 billion fiscal stimulus package announced on Thursday night and the ADP report showing a gain in US private employment in August instead of a loss. Gains were muted on Friday when the less than expected US employment report was released.
Morning Market Commentary – Bull or Bear?
Bull or Bear? and European Nuclear Power Plant Problems
The weekly chart below of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past few years shows a massive rising wedge formation, which has severe bearish implications should the price action break below the lower limit of this pattern. Given the easy money policy in the US and other parts of the world, a certain amount of skepticism of the bearish implications is warranted. However, the merit of this pattern is supported by a negative momentum divergence over the same period.
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts
End of Q3
Now will there be a final spurt in Q4 2012?
We had the privilege to visit with some of Germany’s top corporate managements last week in Munich, plus get a glimpse at the Oktoberfest, where we were on a fact-finding mission with clients to assess the state of mind of the German corporate executives and that of the overall German consumer.
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts – No Inflation?
Inflation adjusted gasoline prices in the US have soared in the past four months. The inflation-adjusted price for a gallon of unleaded is up over $0.50 since the end of June and has rarely been higher than current levels.
- Middle East crises are often associated with major swings in the price of gasoline.
- Gasoline price spikes also have often occurred prior to an economic downturn.
Middle East instability (e.g. Arab spring) and Middle East tensions (e.g. Iran) are ongoing. Continue reading
Morning Market Commentary -Technical Market Observations
Technical Market Observations & Babbage
The weakest 3-week period of the year for North American equity markets is from September 16th to October 9th. The S&P 500 has dropped an average of 2.5% during this period. The TSE Composite Index has dropped an average of 4.0% per period. The weakness is related to negative guidance (earnings confession season) and analyst estimate reductions/downgrades during this period prior to release of third quarter results.
2012 so far:……
Morning Market Commentary – European Mega Banks “Big Split”
Discussions have been going on for some time, in Berlin and, most of all, Brussels, to proceed to split up “Mega-Banks”. The European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Michel Barnier, a former French cabinet minister with snow-white hair, is the most feared of the Brussels commissioners in European financial centers. He is already responsible for more than 30 EU regulations decreeing how banks and other financial market players are to do business in the future.
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts
The Federal Reserve’s decision on Thursday to proceed with QE3 + was not a surprise to us, albeit for most of the market participants, and equity markets responded accordingly. Volume gains on Thursday and Friday were impressive. Additional follow through early this week is likely. However, news from the Fed came at a time when equity markets already were significantly overbought based on short and intermediate technical indicators. Technical action on Friday was an interesting “tell”. Equity markets moved higher at the open, dropped close to break-even just before the close and closed strong on end-of-day buy orders. Not an impressive follow through!
The weakest three week period of the year starts this week. The period is related to pre-third quarter earnings report news. The next three-week period historically is when negative guidance is most frequently released by corporations and when analysts reduce estimates and recommendations. The frequency of negative guidance since release of second quarter results has been unusually high this year. We see evidence of history to repeat during the next three weeks.
Morning Market Commentary – Temporary Euro Relief
“Saved by the bell” “Temporary Euro Relief”
The Federal Constitutional Court has rejected a petition to stop the ratification of the permanent euro rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. The decision clears the way for the ESM to go into effect. In a historically significant signal for the Euro rescue, the German Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled there are no grounds to stop the country from ratifying the European Stability Mechanism, the permanent euro bailout fund. However, the justices expressed some reservations.
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts – Russia’s “Nukes of Hazard”
Weekly Investment Conclusion:
Downside risk exceeds upside potential in equity markets during the next six weeks.The breakout by the S&P 500 Index last week implies that depth of the downside risk is less than previous. Selected seasonal trades continue on the upside (gold, energy, software) and downside (transportation). However, many of these seasonal trades reach the end of their period of seasonal strength this month. September is a month of transition.
Morning Market Commentary & Weekly Charts
So Mr. Bernanke, Ready for a run down Corbett’s Couloir?
Following on from last week’s peak of the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s closely watched speech at the Jackson Hole symposium, markets widely believe that further quantitative easing (QE) is now on the cards for the central bank’s next meeting on September 13th and 14th.
Morning Market Commentary
Market Commentary covering US Economic Concerns, US unemployment, European Economic Concerns, Currencies Commentary and Outlook.
Global Markets Technical Outlook
We see the current EURO weakness, and implicit US$ strength as a tremendous opportunity to add towards EU quality assets, and inversely, to reducing US assets, as we expect the US$ weakness to resume later in 2010. Please read our in-depth report on the US Economy , Chinese Economy, Japan’s Economy, European Economies, Emerging Economies, Currencies, Global Equity Markets and Commodities.