Barclays’ third-quarter profit was lower than last year’s and below expectations at £1.1bn, with trading at the investment banking arm dragging down group results. German banking giant Deutsche Bank today also saw trading revenues decline (by 30 per cent) in the third quarter, worse than analysts’ expectations. Determined that his cost-cutting plans will eventually bear fruit chief executive John Cryan insisted he will carry on until his contract ends in 2020. In Sweden Nordea, which will be moving its headquarters to Helsinki soon, announced that 6,000 jobs are to be axed to stay competitive.
A report commissioned by UK Finance and conducted by PwC showed that in the last fiscal year banking in Britain contributed £35.4bn in taxes. Of this £18.1bn was paid by UK banks and the rest by UK based foreign lenders, City AM reports.
DAX 30
Teetering close to the record high with a seemingly infinite series of horrid little daily doji type candles, the MACD becoming increasingly bearish.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small short at 13045; stop above 13125. Target 12400.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
FTSE 100
Yesterday’s close below 7480 completes a small rounded top against the 7555 area. Momentum is now bearish and more importantly it is the third time since May that the index has stalled at this level. Note that since 1999 this index has struggled numerous times to hold above the psychological 7000.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Short at 7554; stop above 7570. Target 7320.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
S&P 500
A quite extraordinary little chart pattern with a second hanging man candle mirroring that of Thursday while between them we have a tweezers type reversal. This looks increasingly unstable even as we move off ridiculously overbought RSI levels.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small short at 2567; stop above 2580. Target 2500, maybe 2450.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
BRITISH POUND/US DOLLAR
Breaking trend line resistance and underlining chart support at 1.3100 as preliminary Q3 GDP data (+0.4% M/M and +1.5% Y/Y) released yesterday was not as weak as Remainers had threatened. Mind you, they are blaming Brexit on the fact that UK car sales fell for a fifth consecutive month in September.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Long at 1.3115; stop below 1.3100. Target 1.3400.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
EURO/US DOLLAR
Lifting marginally despite zero momentum as we sit through hours of speculation as to what the ECB might do today and what Mario Draghi might say.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
GOLD
Still hovering roughly in the middle of the range since mid-July.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small short at 1275; stop well above 1300. Target 1220.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
Nicole Elliott is a long-standing Member of the Society of Technical Analysts and has taken over the IC’s trading coverage. She is regularly interviewed and quoted by the financial media, is a conference speaker, and author of several books on charting.
