Before the Open (Feb 10)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down; Hong Kong, Indonesia and South Korea dropped more than 1%. Europe is currently down across the board; Austria is down almost 3%, Belgium, France, Germany, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Switzerland are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a sizeable gap down open for the cash market.
The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold and silver are down.
Everyday this week the market has been weak early (either via an opening gap down or an intraday sell-off), and everyday the market has V bottomed and rallied to recapture the losses and close near its highs. Is the market correcting with a series of mini thrusts down instead of an actual pullback? Maybe. Pressure seems to be building – pressure that typically leads to a blow-off top of quick sell-off – but each of these mini thrusts acts to difuse a little pressure.
I said yesterday at the end of the day today would be important. Who would flinch first? Would the bears throw in the towel and cover in total frustration or would the bulls want to take profits ahead of the weekend? This was the technical situation, but with Greece’s bailout not yet finalized, premarket futures are not letting the natural forces of supply and demand play out.
Here’s the 60-min SPX chart. If the market really did want to correct, a drop all the way to 1300 would not destroy the up-slopping channel.

I remain cautiously bullish in the near term and bullish in the intermediate term. But I’m a trader. I’m always looking to sell laggards or when my targets are hit to free up cash for new positions. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
headlines at MarketWatch
today’s upgrades/downgrades
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers

0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Feb 10)”

  3. This may last a few days. If late to the long game dont listen to some ‘pro’ investment adviser idiot and ride your positions down go to a safe state.
    Best of luck

    1. I trade both sides.But my focus is the long side, better odds for big gains.
      I use leverage in my margin accts and the ultras in my retirement accts.
      I am Cdn but lived and worked internationally so I can play (& get bleeped) on both sides of the border. My preference is US stocks and ETFs, I think Cdn stocks and exchanges are still inefficient and more bleeped up than on the US side, hang over from the time of the brits – the POME effect, you skippies know what I mean.

      1. Thanks Raymond
        when analysing ones comments its handy to know ones style and time frames
        Aussie market dead with little volitility,but at least i know the oz stocks
        and back in the good old days of the 2004-7 bull i traded like u
        up to 20 commodity stocks at a time,flicking back and forward between charts and making heaps

  8. Everyone likes a story – 3 items
    Annual chinese new yr bznss interruption / economy is doubtful cluster bleep
    Euro big boys really want greece to leave, just do it quietly
    Settlement of abusive foreclosure by the big banks esp BAC
    Keep looking under the hood. Hunt and eat the alphas. Heed for but dont get lost by the indices. Same smug useless bleep heads that provides ratings put together the indices.
    beat drums in the east attack from the west
    make money, keep it, compound it
    best of luck

  10. Hey Aussie! What do you get when you mate a giraffe with a kangaroo? A stock with a long nick, long tail that jumps around a lot. Jittery market. Oh well, I think I’ll put this short on autopilot.

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