Ian Wyatt

Are the Sellers Done?

So far this year, the S&P 500 has dropped 3% or more in one session 3 different times. The two previous times, it clawed back some of the losses over the following week. We’ll have to wait and see of there is any upside after yesterday’s big drop.   

 

The S&P 500 is now testing the lows from the “flash crash” on May 6. This is interesting because it was assumed that trading that day was something of a fluke as computer trading programs went haywire. But now that stocks are back to those levels, we must consider that the drop may not have been a fluke.  

 

The question now is: can stocks find some strength? Or perhaps a better way to ask the question is: are the sellers done?   

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Ian Wyatt

Consolidation

An influential German business confidence survey showed a surprise drop in the country, the first in 10 months. A cold winter has apparently hurt retail sales in Germany.

That's pressuring the euro, and providing strength for the U.S. dollar. It's been pretty well documented that the euro does not tend to rally alongside the dollar. And that's what we saw yesterday.

One positive note from yesterday - Maguire Properties rallied off of support at $1.50. Volume was strong and the stock broke above its 50-day moving average. You may recall yesterday, I said the stock needed to rally, and soon. Now, it needs to keep rising.

Also yesterday, TradeMaster Daily Stock Alerts' Jason Cimpl told us he expects consolidation for the stock market this week. (Consolidation occurs when prices don't move much as investors adjust to a new price level.)

Yesterday, the S&P 500 traded in a tight 7-point range. And it won't be surprising if it holds to a similar tight range today. We might anticipate the negative news from Germany to be offset by an improved reading of the Case-Shiller home price index.

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Ian Wyatt

Soros Bullish on the Euro?

It was just last Thursday that we discussed "talking one's book" and made special mention of George Soros. If you missed that issue of The Daily Profit, talking one's book means advocating a belief in public that supports one's trading position, regardless of whether you actually believe it's true.

So it's interesting that Soros has a piece in today's Financial Times where he states that "The survival of Greece would still leave the future of the euro in question." He goes on to say that the aid package for Greece won't work for Spain, Italy, Portugal or Ireland.

Now, if we check the chart we can see that the U.S. dollar has been rallying. Part of the reason for this has been weakness of the euro due to debt problems in European countries.

$USD chart

The recent spike higher by the dollar was a response to the Fed's discount rate hike. And quite frankly, it looks unsustainable. I think we can assume that Soros is short the euro, and he may even be trying to cover that short right now, in anticipation of a rally for the euro.

Of course, a rally for the euro would send the U.S. dollar lower. That, in turn, will be good for U.S. stocks, gold, and oil.

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Ian Wyatt

Is China Caving?

The Dow Industrials cruised past 10,000 yesterday. Clearly, the news that Germany may be coming to Greece's aid was a big relief for investors. The euro rallied against the U.S. dollar as well, an important catalyst for stock and commodity prices on U.S. exchanges.

Some stability in Europe and progress on a jobs bill in Congress will be good for stocks. Earnings are already solid and I suspect there is more upside coming.

I got on the phone with TradeMaster's Jason Cimpl to see if yesterday was the type of bullish activity he wanted to see from the market. He noted that although the market got a nice bounce (TradeMaster Daily Stock Alerts members closed short positions worth 15% and 5%), the close was very weak.

Typically, indices in a bull trend would have made a push higher into the close. Despite the weak close and his growing pessimism, he did note that market internals were "spectacular." The advancing volume data showed us that the upward action was more than just shorts covering their downside positions - it was also bottom feeders nibbling at the low stock prices. He's watching the 1085 level on the S&P 500 as an important resistance point this week.

There's also some significant news from China today. Credit Suisse is suggesting that instead of letting the yuan appreciate, it may raise wages for Chinese workers. That's important on a number of levels.

First, higher wages for Chinese workers removes some of the competitive edge that China enjoys because it makes their goods more expensive. This move would also put more money in the average Chinese citizen's pocket, which serves China's bigger goal of supporting domestic demand for Chinese goods.

Being an export economy is an unsustainable model, and China knows this. It must transition to a more balanced economy. I've noted in the past that China needs some form of social security to unlock the massive amount of saving in that country. Higher wages is a step in that direction.

Obviously, if wages in China are higher, it will help the U.S. manufacturing sector as well. This is one of the pleasant outcomes of globalization. Ultimately, we will see a more level playing field as the standard of living in emerging economies rises.

The final takeaway of this move is political. It's no secret that President Obama has been putting some pressure on China to remove unfair trade advantages. I won't call it "caving in", but the fact that China would take steps to remove some of the advantage that its exports enjoy clearly shows the country is sensitive to the demands of its trading partners. Who knows, maybe China will also find a solution that lets Google stay in the country?

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