Over the weekend the head of Latvijas Banka, Ilmars Rimsevics, was detained by anti-corruption officials but no details of allegations were given; both his home and his office were searched. The central bank said it will be ‘business as usual’ today with the deputy governor taking over. As well as running one of the Eurozone’s central banks Mr Rimsevics is a board member of the European Central Bank and sits on its rate-setting committee.
Chinese Lunar New Year holiday until Wednesday 21st February, President’s Day holiday in the US today and also Canada’s Family Day mean that markets will probably crushingly dull today.
DAX 30
Once again clinging to and closing above important trend line support though the MACD is bearish. The psychological level at 12000 is also key.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small short at 12535; stop well above 12600. Target 11700.
POSITION TAKER: Short at 12650; stop above 12875. First target 12050, then probably more.
FTSE 100
Closing back inside the tight band that had dominated all last year, but below the half-way point of the recent slump. Still looking top-heavy with a bearish MACD.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small short at 7180; stop well above 7300. Target 7000.
POSITION TAKER: Short at 7250; stop well above 7350. Target the 6675 area.
S&P 500
The S&P 500 has retraced a Fibonacci 61 per cent of the collapse from the record high, helped by a rapidly shrinking US dollar.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Short with a stop above 2750. Target 2455 – and maybe a lot more.
BRITISH POUND/US DOLLAR
Despite bullish momentum last week’s close was slightly disappointing. We’ll just have to be more patient.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small long at 1.3885; stop below 1.3900. Target 1.4200.
POSITION TAKER: Long at 1.3930; stop below 1.3900. First target 1.4275, then 1.4650.
EURO/US DOLLAR
A fairly sharp rejection on Friday at the 1.2555 level suggests that despite bullish momentum we may consolidate under here for another week or so.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Looking to re-buy.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
GOLD
Still struggling with long term trend line resistance though not overbought this time around.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
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.
