You can tell it is earnings season: the FTSE 100 had a little bounce at 6670 stalled, fell back, climbed again and all within a 30 point range for the day.
All very boring! Even Gold only had an 8 point range. Think most are waiting for earnings season to finish before going back into the market. Generally, though, the vibe is still bullish.
Facebook and Apple both beat estimates and whilst there was a bit of chop around release time, it was all quite orderly. New home sales in the US missed estimates yesterday though - real mixed economic news at the moment, some good some bad. Is all of this the calm before the storm?
FTSE Outlook
Not an awful lot happened yesterday really and it was a bit of a slow one. We are still not far off the top of the daily channels and with the Bianca ones showing shorter term at 6705 and 6725, then shorts around this area feel preferable. Even the 50 day is only at 6721!
Today’s pivot is 6677 so that could act as support for the moment, with 6702 immediate resistance, being the level we spiked and dropped from on Facebook's results yesterday. Again we have support at 6662 after the pivot, and 6644 after that.
For today it could be another slow one (hoping that next week is going to be better for day trading the FTSE!). I am thinking it will be another dip and rise day, we have some jobs news out of the US at 13:30 which will have an effect on prices, forecast is 310k for initial claims, and 2735k for continuing claims.
Just below today's pivot we do have a new 30 minute channel, which I expect to hold (hence the slightly wider stop on the long below, to account for that channel) so if we do dip to 6677/6666 then that could be a good bounce area.
I am certainly looking for shorts at around the top of the daily channels at the 6710/6730 areas, though. If the bears take early control and break the 6662 level then 6644 is the next support.
Gold
Gold stayed quite flat yesterday. Support today is 1277 then 1272 as per the daily chart below. Resistance today is 1289 if the gold bulls can hold above 1286. I think a short at 1289 stop 1293, target 1277/1273 is a good play here looking at the declining 30 minute channels. That’s off the top of that 30 minute channel, and targeting the bottom of that channel, as well as the daily support area too. Therefore, a long 1273 with a stop at 1269 for a possible run back to 1300+ after that.
S&P
The S&P 500 is still in quite a strong uptrend looking at the 10 day Raff channel below. As such, a rise above 1886 today should see 1891 and the top of the 20 day Raff at 1902 before too long. Support today is 1876.3, which is the daily pivot.
If staying relatively matched to the FTSE and vice versa a dip to the pivot then rise to 1886/1891 would match up with the FTSE hitting 6725ish.
DAX
The DAX experienced a strong drop from 9630 yesterday, then all loses erased with the climb back after finding support at 9540. That’s the base line support now and a break of that would likely reach 9520 and possibly 9490.
It’s currently at resistance at 9600 and with today’s pivot at 9564, a small dip to there from this 9600 and then a rise again could mirror the FTSE plan for today. I'd go long at the pivot today on this, as I think it has a little higher too go before dipping on a longer time frame.
