Archive for March, 2008

Good morning

Look at the USD CHF break out play yesterday. A solid support line from monday last week and a good pullback to the 200ma, for just under 100 points profit!

Take a look at my entry point on the 1st chart…

The FTSE did a bit better today, to say the least.  To keep hold of a 150-200 point lead for the close was very positive indeed.   The FTSE closed up 193.9 points at 5,689.1, whilst the FTSE 250 closed up 346.2 at 9,794.6.

The news we mentioned this morning regarding the JP Morgan/Bear Sterns bid gave the financial side of things something positive. Other news over the pond that house sales were better than expected also gave some confidence, although the average prices were down.  By the time London closed the DJI was down nearly 30 points at 12,519, whilst the S&P500 was down 2 points at 1,352, and the Nasdaq down about 6 points at 2,333.

back here in London the banks did well.  Barclays closed up 30p at 459p after Merrills reiterated its ‘buy’ rating of the bank, whilst HBOS did even better, up nearly 71p at 544.5p after news that directors had been buying shares after those false rumours last week.  RBS closed up 30p at 351.25, lloyds TSB up 27.5p at 461.5, Alliance & Leicester up 11.5p at 548.25.

Insurance also did well. Standard Life closed up nearly 18p at 252.5p, Aviva up 44.5p 635.5p, and Old Mutual closed up 9.1p better that 114.4.

The miners gave the FTSE a boost too, with the heavyweights climbing well after metal prices turned up again.  Anglo closed up 169p at 2,841, Rio up 185p at 4,982.5, Xstrata up 233p at 3,713, BHP up 69p at 1,430.5, and Kazakhmys closed up 107p at 1,541.5.

Oil stocks did well as the price of the black stuff was near US$100 bbl. BP closd up 19p at just shy of 515p, RD Shell closed up 48p at 1,682, and Tullow Oil up 31p at just shy of 649p.

The housebuilders also had a decent day today, probably mostly due to the US housing report yetserday.  Persimmons closed up 71.5p at 770, Taylor Wimpey up 19.5p at 183.3p, Bovis up 74p at 597-1/2, Redrow up nearly 34p at just shy of 304p, and Bellways was up 57p at just shy of 809p.  Bellway announces its interim figures in the morning.

British Energy was subject to bid rumours, closing up 39.5p at 660.25 after a weekend press report that Centrica is sniffing with a possible £10 bln stg bid for the nuclear power company.

Yellow Pages publisher Yell had a little bounce, after its torrid recent weeks, with a 17p rise to 155p.

To the negatives, where Merrills didn’t helped the recently strong Morrissons as it downgraded the supermarket chain to ‘neautral’ from ‘buy’, resulting in a 7.5p fall to close at 272p.

After news that the government wants to hide cigarettes under the counters of shops, the tobacco sector took a hit.  British American Tobacco closed down 58p at 1,822, and Imperial Tobacco closed down 55p at 23-quid a share.

Go-Ahead, the transport group, closed up 54p to close at 1,586.5 after broker upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘add’ and kept its 2,155p target saying it looked cheap.

Hi James,

I hope that you had a great Easter break. Here are some stats for you.

10th March  Pound/US 40 POINTS.

11TH March  Pound/US 85     EURO/US 15   POUND/YEN 140  POUND/CHF   70

12TH MARCH  POUND/US   90   AUS/US   55   EURO/US   125   POUND/YEN  125

13TH MARCH   AUS/US  67   POUND/SWISS  50

TOTAL=   842

Missed the 1000 target but will hit it sometime.

Regards,

Thomas

Good morning

Please take a look at our Weekly Wrap Report

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://marketbytes.mdsmarkets.com/2003d1234.swf” height=”580″ width=”750″ /]

Hi Dan

Great morning trading last week. EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY. Against the daily trend but ready to bail out at the sign of reversal.

325 pips!!! First time traded eur/jpy and with only a 3 pip spread a fantastic currency pair to trade. Moves the same way as gbp/jpy so a great duo to trade together.

Many thanks

GD

The FTSE was up this morning, with the 100 up 179 points at 5,674.3 and the FTSE 250 up 281 poiints at 9729.4.

News that JP Morgan had raised its offer for the failed Bear Sterns from $2 to $10 was taken well.  The housing sales figures were also betterthan expected over there too. Not a bad Easter. As yetserday wasn’t a bank holiday in the US the markets were open.  The DJI closed up 187.32 points at 12,548.64, whilst the S&P500 closed up 20.37 points at 1,349.88, and the Nasdaq up 2,326.75.

In the Far East today they were follwing the States, with the Nikkei 225 closing up 265.13 points, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng recently closed up a healthy 1,356.3 points at 22,464.52.

Oil was falling back in Far East trade too, with Light Sweet (May del) now not much above US$100 bbl.  Brent (May del) is sub $100 bbl, trading at around US$99.4 bbl.

Back here in London this morning it was the banks that were doing well. With news that HBOS directors had been buying around £1.5m shares between them last week as a sign of belief (and opportunity?), HBOS was up 57p at 478 in early trading.  Peers were also doing well, with RBS up 29p at 350p, Barclays up nearly 50p at 478p, Alliance & Leicester up 50p at 588p and Lloyds TSB up 27p at 461.

Insurance was also doing well.  Aviva was up 35p at 626p, Standard Life up 15p at almost 250p, and the Pru was up 30p at 665p.

The housebuilders were also having a nice morning, mainly on the back of the US housing figures, with Persimmons up 45p at 744, Taylor Wimpey up 11p at 174.8, Barratts up 25p at 404p, Redrow up 22p at 292p, and Bovis Homes up 40p at 563p.

We expect further rises in the markets here in London today.

Dear Dan, I write to provide feedback on my experience with market bytes over the past few weeks. I have been with MDS a number of months and have found the company and back office support and the people exceptional. I wanted to attain to the next level as a trader and believed that watching the video’s to understand how a professional trader analyses a chart and plans a trade would enhance my own trading strategy. Market Bytes is a service that can benefit the experienced trader, intermediate trader and the novice. I have continued with my own morning analysis and strategy and used the video as confirmation of my findings. Each time it has either confirmed my analysis and provided further information that I did not see on my own. Market Bytes is increasing my confidence in the markets and over time is helping me become a better trader with consistent results. Dan, provides professional, expert analysis in a very uncomplicated way. I would highly recommend it no matter what level of trader you are.  Paul MDS subscriber

Dan,

Had a great week last week. Over 1000 pips for the second time since I started using the service.
Managed to scoop almost 500 on Thurday from 4 trades.
Lost a little bit on GBP/USD which I re-couped on Oil & Gold.
The bank holiday was kind to me too. Long on the break of the triangle on GBP/JPY, upto the 200 m.a on the hourly for a ‘cheeky’ 140 pips.
Keep up the good work master !

Zak

So, here we are, a nice long weekend to reflect on some recent market turmoil.  Maybe we can even have a prayer that no more bad news on bad debt and bad credit will be released over this Easter weekend. We can hope that there will be no more bad gossip leaked by some nasty 25 year-old traders that will effect the share price of a multi-billion pound world bank like HBOS to the tune of a 20% drop.  Naughty boys.

We finished the day down today.  Am I suprised?  No.  Is anyone else in the support room suprised?  No.

The FTSE closed today down over 50 points today at 5,495.2, under the 5.5k line, which we had managed to get back over during the afternoon.  But alas, the pre-break sell off came towards the end of the session.  The FTSE 250 closed down 102,8 points at 9,448.4, under thr 9.5k line.

Over the pond it was somewhat different, despite commodity prices being lower, as by the time London closed the DJI was up about 112 points at around 12,212, whilst the S&P500 was up 10 points as 1,309 and the Nasdaq up 16 points at 2,226 points. It seems investors feel there is some scavenging to be done, and that some floors seem to be in place.

Gold and other metals were down, basically due to concenrs over the world’s economy and the dollar gaining some stregnth again, oh, and the extra 0.75% interest rate cut by the Feds that wasn’t as high (!) as expected, too.  With this the miners were down.  Anto was down 44.5p at 622p, BHP down 80p at 1,361, Rio down 270p at 48-quid, and Anglo down 236p at 2,673p.

Oil stocks also suffered, with the oil price falling, with BP down 15.5p at 496p, BG Group down 27p at 1,037, and Cairn Energy down 178p at 2,535p.  Smaller players were off too, with Dana Petroleum was down 131p at 1,074, Soco Intnl down 108p at 1,841, Premier Oil down 102p at 1,241, Aricom down 5.5p at 73p and Randgold Resources closed down 172p at 2,173.

Carrying on from this morning, aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce closed dodnw nearly 14p at 394.5p as there were some concerns over the delays to the new Boeing B787 Dreamliner aeroplanes, which RR supply engines for.  Broker Evo doesn’t like this and reitereated its ’sell’ rating.

On the other hand, Rentokil closed up at 85.5p, up 12.7p on the day, or 17%, as the company announced some boardroom changes to the courier and delievery side to the business, which was sen as welcome after the recent profit warnings.  Evo gave a thumbs up and reiterated its ‘buy’ rating.

Carphone Warehouse closed up nearly 9p at 279.5p aftre it said it had agreed a deal to sell the its Swiss branch network to Swisscom. Brokers Investec Sec and Daniel Stewart reiterated their ‘buy’ ratings and 4-quid to 416p targets.

HBOS, yesterday’s ‘dipper’, closed up 27.5p to just shy of 474p.  The FSA said it was looking into the de-ramping rumours that went on yesterday in which it was said that halifax didn’t have any cash and HBOS had gone to the BoE with cap in hand.  Tut, tut.

Pharmas looked safer, with AstraZeneca closing up 37p at 1,879p and Glaxo up 19p at 1,069 after broker Dresdner Kleinwort moved from ’sell’ to to ‘hold’ on Astra with a 1,840 target.

Retail sector had a small boost as figures for Feb were up, but nothing to write home about.  However, it was an excuse for investors to move back in, with Marks & Sparks closing up 8.5p at 387, Debenhams up 9p at 68p, and Home Retail Group up over 6p at 246.25p.

Cruise operator Carnival closed up 57p at 1,986 after the group announced a 1st quarter income of $236 mln, down from $283m last year, but better than the $232m expected by analysts, non-the-less.

We’ll be taking a few days off to eat some chocolate.  Chat on Tuesday 25th - enjoy the long weekend.

Good afternoon

Well what i thought was going to be a quiet day ended being very profitable with EURUSD. Take a look at the break on the 60min chart through the 200ma for just under 200 points.

Have a great weekend.