Yesterday social media group Twitter advised its 330 million users – via posts and Tweets naturally! – to change their passwords. They had discovered a fault which had caused some passwords to be stored in readable text rather than being encrypted. The firm says it has fixed the problem and no harm had been done to customers.
Most of us by now have heard of the mess that online banking at the UK’s TSB has been for almost a fortnight. Australia’s 4 biggest banks have also had rather a lot of bad publicity recently, from irresponsible lending, lack of competition, low levels of capital and internal operations. Today City AM reports that the biggest of these, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, lost the records of nearly 20 million customers – two years ago! Head of retail banking Angus Sullivan, in a YouTube video, confirmed two magnetic tapes containing 15 years’ worth of details had been lost. These contained the names, addresses, account numbers – and luckily not Pin numbers. PM Turnbull said, ‘this is an extraordinary blunder’.
DAX 30
No follow-through following Wednesday’ break higher, coupled with a poor showing on the MACD, does not inspire confidence.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
FTSE 100
Still overbought as we hold at the Fibonacci 76.4 per cent retracement; remember that the maximum Fibonacci retracement is 78.6 per cent.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Considering going short around current levels.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
S&P 500
A dose of the jitters as we test the bottom of the giant triangle. It is a hammer candle so may stave off a break lower until next week. A weekly close below 2580 should add to bearish pressure and I might sell some more.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small short at 2689; stop above 2725. Target 2580.
POSITION TAKER: Short at 2673; stop above 2725. First target 2560.
BRITISH POUND/US DOLLAR
More oversold than it’s been since October 2016 and a second consecutive attempt at stalling the slump yesterday with a dragonfly doji. We believe recent US dollar strength against the majors is temporary and a correction in the trend to US dollar weakness since President Trump took up office.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Waiting for a reversal on the weekly chart before going long.
POSITION TAKER: New small long at 1.3565; stop below 1.3400. Target 1.4300.
EURO/US DOLLAR
Though more oversold than it has been since November 2016 there are currently few signs of forming an interim base. US employment data this afternoon might do the trick.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Still watching to a level at which to buy the euro.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
GOLD
Yesterday’s bounce back above the 1310 level has almost turned the commodity channel index positive.
SHORT TERM TRADER: New tiny long at 1307; stop quite a bit below 1300. Target 1330.
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.
