Property website Rightmove reports that the price of a London home fell by 3.5 per cent in the year to December 2017, the average now standing at £600,926; this is the biggest annual drop since 2009. Hardest hit were those in Transport for London Zones 2 and 3 which slumped by 6.4 per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively. Asking prices in the capital were trimmed by £8,800 and the number of homes sold in the fourth quarter fell by 5.5 per cent. Across the rest of Britain house prices increased by 2.6 per cent.
City AM reports that UK firms have been hit by late payments from the EU. Business finance company MarketInvoice says that in 2017 on average invoices were paid late by 9.1 days, and that the number of bills involved increased from 40 per cent to 73 per cent over the year. Late payers from the US increased from 7.1 days late to 19.5 days.
DAX 30
I remain unconvinced that the technical picture here is bullish. Precious little progress since March and the MACD is pointing down again. Germany’s two major parties Friday agreed to enter into formal talks to potentially form another grand coalition. Some have started worrying about the power vacuum at the heart of the EU.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Short at 13290; stop above 13550. Target 12900.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
FTSE 100
Settling higher for a fifth consecutive week and bullish momentum is steady. We see this year’s move as the first phase in establishing a new higher level for the index.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Long at 7681; stop below 7645. Target 8000.
S&P 500
Settling at a new record high and more overbought on the RSI than I can remember any index being. Remember, US dollar weakness supplies an underlying bid to US equities.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
BRITISH POUND/US DOLLAR
The strongest weekly close post-referendum capping last year’s steady rally. Time for more people to re-think simplistic Brexit assumptions.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Long at 1.3540; stop below 1.3470. First target 1.3800.
POSITION TAKER: New long at 1.3730; stop well below 1.3600. First target 1.4000, then probably 1.4600.
EURO/US DOLLAR
Another currency powering ahead against an increasingly enfeebled US dollar. The euro has now retraced just over half of the losses between 2014 ($1.4000) to last year’s low ($1.0340). We see the weekly close clearly above the psychological $1.2000 as a significant break.
SHORT TERM TRADER: New long at 1.2150; stop below 1.2040. Target 1.2575.
POSITION TAKER: New long at 1.2200; stop below 1.1900. First target 1.2600, then maybe 1.3000.
GOLD
US dollar weakness has seen spot gold break above first trend line resistance and the MACD turn bullish. It has also managed a fourth consecutive weekly higher close yet is not overbought on the RSI. Not sure what to do here.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Stopped out of my short position on Friday’s surge.
POSITION TAKER: Short at 1317; stop above 1360.
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.
