Trading Blogs

U.S. stocks hit record high on Fed expectations; Dow up 0.69%

Investing.com – U.S. stocks hit record highs on Thursday after a strong weekly jobless claims report gave investors a double shot of optimism. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 16,000 for the first time ever amid sentiments that the U.S. economy is improving though the Federal Reserve will continue stimulating the economy with stock-boosting bond purchases in the coming months to be sure recovery can stand on its own.

Stimulus tools such as the Fed's USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases drive down interest rates to spur recovery, boosting stock prices in the process.

At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.69% at16,099.99, the S&P 500 index rose 0.81%, while the Nasdaq Composite index rose 1.22%.

Data released earlier revealed manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region expanded at the slowest pace in six months in November.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said that its manufacturing index fell to 6.5 in November from 19.8 in October. 

Economists had expected the index to decline to 15.0.

Thursday's BUY/CALL on the SP500 was a very comfortable winner for our traders.  After opening near Wednesday's close, the index took off right out of the gates and slowly gained value throughout the day, ending well above our entry price.  Are you a GOLD member?  Did you profit as well?

U.S. stocks drop on Federal Reserve minutes; Dow down 0.41%

Investing.com – U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said in the minutes of its October policy meeting released earlier that it may begin tapering the pace of its monthly asset purchases in the coming months.

Stimulus tools such as the Fed's USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases drive down interest rates to spur recovery, boosting stock prices in the process, and talk of their dismantling can dampen stock prices by fanning uncertainty as to how equities will perform without a monetary crutch.

At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.41%, the S&P 500 index fell 0.36%, while the Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.26%.

The economy is on the mend and will soon require less support from the Fed in the form of monthly bond purchases, the Fed minutes found.

Wednesday's Trade of the Day ended up with an invalid entry price, meaning that our traders should have avoided placing the trade at all.   The alert called for a BUY on Facebook (FB) with an entry price of 46.60 or lower, and you can see from today's chart on FB that it opened at 46.61, above the suggeested price.  Again, we provide these entry prices to take advantage of a predicted move - when it opens at an invalid price, the move that we are counting on to win the trade has already happened.

Crude up in choppy trading, tracks Iranian nuclear talks

Investing.com – Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday albeit in a choppy session as investors waited for talks to begin on Wednesday between Western delegates and Iran over the latter's nuclear program and ways to close it.

An end to nuclear impasse could resume the flow of Iranian crude into global markets.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude futures for delivery in January traded at USD93.79 a barrel during U.S. trading, up 0.12%. 

The commodity hit a session low of USD93.23 and a high of USD94.05. The December contract settled down 0.86% at USD93.03 a barrel on Monday.

Oil futures were likely to find support at USD92.53 a barrel, Thursday's low, and resistance at USD94.92 a barrel, Monday's high.

Traders, we are paying very close attention to Silver as it is on the verge of a major move.  Notice the chart above - Silver prices have broken through a long resistance level at about 27.00.  Since crashing below 20.00 it has since rebounded a bit, and has established a trendline (the green line on the right).  If price ends below this green line on Friday, we are calling for a real move further down (more SELLING) in the days and weeks to come.  If price finishes above that green line on Friday, we are prediciting a bounce in price towards the end of the year.  Watch price and be ready to react!

Broker of the Month
TopOption - IT's Newest Partner Broker

TopOption.com is at the top of our rankings of all of our partner brokers, and with good reason.  With a 0 minimum deposit, an easy to use trading platform with many expiration options, and a huge asset index, we at IntelliTraders.com recommend every one of our traders to get a TopOption.com account of their own.  In fact, we will pay you to do it. Create and fund a new TopOption.com account and receive the following:

• One GUARANTEED winning trade – if our free alert loses we will refund your losses up to 0!
• 3 months GOLD alerts FREE – you will receive a minimum of TWO daily GOLD alerts free (a 9 value)

Don’t waste any more time wondering what broker you should start your trading career with – it’sTopOption.com and we will pay you to do it.  Let’s go!

Dollar edges lower on Fed expectations, housing data

Investing.com – The dollar traded mixed to lower against most major currencies on Monday amid ongoing sentiments the Federal Reserve will leave its ultra-loose monetary policies in place into early 2014, though upbeat comments from Bank of New York President William C. Dudley cushioned the greenback's losses.

In U.S. trading on Monday, EUR/USD was up 0.07% at 1.3506.

Fed Chair Nominee Janet Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee late last week that the U.S. central bank remains committed to purchasing USD85 billion in Treasury holdings and mortgage debt a month to prop up the economy, a monetary policy tool known as quantitative easing that weakens the dollar by driving down interest rates.

The dollar did come off earlier lows, however, after Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said he was growing more and more hopeful that the U.S. economy is improving and added fiscal uncertainties may no longer be dragging down recovery as in recent months.

The pair EUR/USD found support yesterday on 1.34 and then rebounded to validate a breakout of 1.3450 (buy signal).
On its last rally, the price almost reached 1.35 in extension and the lower band of its previous medium term bullish channel (pink lines).
The EUR / USD is now moving into a short term bullish channel (new blue segments on the 1H chart).
A correction to 1.3450 has been recorded this night and the price is now moving to resume its bullish movement.

I still advise traders to trade the EUR/USD pair outside the range 1.34 / 1.3450 :

- Stay flat (no position) between 1.34 and 1.3450 .

- Trade only Long positions (buy) above 1.3450 .
A break of 1.35 will offer a new buy signal for an extension of the rebound towards 1.3550.
Towards 1.35, pay attention to the lower band (now resistance) of the previous medium term bullish channel (pink lines) .

- Trade only Shorts positions (sell) below 1.34.
A break of 1.3350 will offer a new sell signal for a return on 1.33.
Below 1.34, pay attention to the bearish slant (now support) or lines of the former short-term bearish channel ( black lines) which could allow a new rebound.

Forex - Dollar cools recent gains on dovish Yellen testimony

The dollar traded higher though it edged off recent gains after Federal Reserve Chair Nominee Janet Yellen told Congress that monetary stimulus tools should stay in place as needed to ensure a more robust recovery.

In U.S. trading on Thursday, EUR/USD was down 0.25% at 1.3452.

The euro, still reeling from an ECB rate cut amid fears inflation rates are waning, narrowed its losses against the greenback after Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee that the U.S. central bank's USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases have and will continue to support the economy until more sustained recovery becomes evident.

"We have made good progress, but we have farther to go to regain the ground lost in the crisis and the recession," Yellen said. 

"Unemployment is down from a peak of 10 percent, but at 7.3 percent in October, it is still too high, reflecting a labor market and economy performing far short of their potential. At the same time, inflation has been running below the Federal Reserve's goal of 2 percent and is expected to continue to do so for some time."

Monetary stimulus tools such as monthly bond purchases aim to spur recovery by driving down long-term interest rates, weakening the dollar in the process.