Before the Open (Mar 18)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. Europe is currently up across the board. Futures here in the States point towards another large gap up open for the cash market.

The yen hit an all-time high yesterday. Then a pledge was made by the world’s seven leading industrial nations to weaken the yen – this will help Japanese exports. This is a nice thing to do, but come on. Is this the reason for the gap up?
I looked at many charts last night and can conclude they still don’t look very good. Many have broken down from topping patterns and now have a big block of resistance overhead, and volume on down days is still much heavier than up days. Even if the situation in Japan gets resolved soon (unlikely) much work would be needed to “fix” the charts and restore good feelings.
I think best case scenario going forward is a bounce followed by several weeks of chopping and churning to allow the charts to reset before attempting to leg up. Worst case is this low-volume bounce gets sold into early next week and new lows are made soon after.
It’s Friday. There have been many very nice set ups for day traders, but swing trades haven’t been wise. In today’s market you can’t expect to hold very long. Be nimble. Be very very nimble.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings Reports
this week’s Economic Numbers

0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Mar 18)”

  1. China raises reserve requirement for 3rd time, G8 moves the Yen down, Ben pours more gas on the fire, and of course the middle east oil just rose again due to Obama’s peace efforts, NOT. Inflationary indications of the near future, 3-6 months.
    Up UP for a while, then one day in May the Fed says no more and what happens?? We get some stronger indications of inflation as the heros of Wall street turn: Out run it if you can, buy gold if you can eat it, or go flat and die. Whatever its coming.
    Other than that Mrs Lincoln.

  3. People that complain about making their broker rich have got to be old. Have you tried a discount broker? My RT fees are less than 1%. I don’t even factor them in anymore.

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