Before the Open (Apr 18)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a nice weekend.
The Asian/Pacific market closed mixed and with a bearish bias. Only India lost more than 1%. Europe is currently down across the board. All but one index is down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a relatively large gap down open for the cash market.

Fears of Greece defaulting on their debt is a big reason Europe is down so much. And even though Greece is a small country, a default would have ripple effects because larger countries like Germany and France are big holders of Greek debt. Portugal has begun bailout discussions, and Spain had to pay higher interest rates to borrow money. Europe is a slow moving train wreck.
Last week the US markets seemed to be on edge, but the bottom didn’t fall out. The bears controled the early week and the bulls the late week. In the end the market closed down for the week but well off their lows. Today’s open will give back about half the move off the early-week low.
For over a week now I’ve been laying low and being conservative. There aren’t many good patterns to trade, and since I’m one to wait for good set ups in under favorable conditions, I’ve haven’t been very active. I don’t mind waiting.
Long term the trend is still up. Short term I’ll call the trend neutral. There is no dominant trend or sentiment…hence why I’ve been laying low. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Economic Numbers

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

  1. “Short term I’ll call the trend neutral.
    There is no dominant trend or sentiment…” Jason says.
    Never short a dull market? Maybe but..
    Appears energy is topping here. Demand Destruction.
    I expect the spring market to fall and the summer
    to be start of a lazy correction lasting a while.
    New highs are low, new lows OK, but that may change.
    I am short crude, S&P index and Goog, AAPL.Long BIDU
    SINA for investments. Adding to dividends portfolio.

  3. just closed out my shorts and will reload a little higher plus europe closing shortly
    any one see the usd –that up is fear,but it was well up on europe data before s and p downgrade
    well europe is well below S5 INTRADAY PIVIOT

  5. i liked what Neal said about trading the tide,therefore havnt reentered short–no opportunity–plus i wanted to see what happens in our asia session and europe
    also the 11700 area would give us another chance at 12000
    but my feeling is the bulls have been hurt and the long onlys
    –was impressed with ndx recovery

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