A very positive day on Asian markets today, as optimism abounds, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index up nearly 15 points to 4195, after reaching 4200 points intraday.
This level of resistance remains key, and the market could still retrace back to its rising support line as it routinely tries to clear it:
This supports a short or medium term rally thesis, where overhead resistance then needs to clear at 4300-4350 points before a sustained bear market rally can be called as the weekly price has not yet broken above its downtrend since April 2011:
Other Asian markets saw good gains, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up 1.4% or 115 points to 8501 points, the volatile Hang Seng currently up 48 points to 19143 points whilst the Shanghai Composite has dropped, down over 1% to 2248. This is where it currently stands:
The AUD was mainly flat, currently trading at 1.035 against the USD, whilst WTI crude is dicing with $100USD a barrel again, up almost 1%.
Gold was basically flat all morning, but has spiked this afternoon, currently at $1645USD an ounce, with the next target at overhead resistance at $1680 an ounce.
Movers and Shakers
Another mixed but generally good day across the sectors, with the usual suspects – energy and materials leading the way, up 0.8% and 0.6% respectively, whilst IT fell 0.9%
ANZ was up almost 0.5% on the cusp of breaking out of its bullish rectangle pattern, whilst Commonwealth (CBA) finally broke through resistance at $50 per share, although somewhat weakly on very small volume finishing at $50.16 a share. National Australia Bank (NAB) was up 1% but still in a holding pattern and Westpac (WBC) was barely up, still lolly gagging along at support at $20 per share.
There’s not met conviction here on bank stocks yet folks – given their high yields and only one month away until interim dividends are being paid out, this reluctance to bid up is wearing as thin as a Kardashian. The XFJ Financials Index is still in a downtrend from April 2011:
Moving on, and Macquarie (MQG) “tapered” around 0.5% as it too remains flat on the charts, whilst healthcare favourite Cochlear (COH) continues its selloff, down another 1.2% and now dicing with its short term rising support line, still in a dominant downtrend like the financials:
Its “twin” CSL was bid up just a little, remaining just on trend, whilst Telstra (TLS), finished flat as a pancake, on very light volume. In fact – where is the volume? In cash I suppose.
To the resources, where BHP Billiton (BHP) was bid up 0.6% again and is slowly heading back up to resistance at $37 a share, but not quite there yet, although volume is building… Meanwhile, its “twin” Rio Tinto (RIO) was up 0.7% continuing its short term run, possibly going all the way to resistance at $70 per share.
Gold miner Newcrest Mining (NCM) came off a bit, down 0.5%, as AUD strength keeps rises in the spot gold price steady whilst Fortescue (FMG) was up nearly 2%, in what appears to be a rising wedge pattern – bearish normally, and on very light volume, but very short term in nature:
To finish out the ASX8, Woodside Petroleum (WPL) was up 1.5%, building on its short term uptrend and now back to October 2011 price levels, but with a looooonnng way to go.
Finishing up with the defensive stocks Wesfarmers (WES) and Woolworths (WOW) were both flat, the former going nowhere still, the latter trying to get over its 200 day moving average but still feeling the weight of low bids and squirrelly investors.
The major news to watch tonight are more Italian debt auctions, and weekly US dataflow. European and US stocks futures are both up 0.5 to 0.8%, whilst SPI futures have risen above the 4200 point level following their lead.