For US equity traders and investors these are worrying times, as the NQ emini continues to blast its way ever higher, and leaving its sister indices becalmed and lacking direction, with the ES emini a classic example.
For oil traders, speculators and indeed corporate buyers, the price action on the daily oil chart reflects a confused picture for crude oil, and to mix metaphors for a moment, the waters have been muddied and remain confused and uncertain.
The technical support platform in the $1305 per ounce area came to the rescue of gold once again last week, with five consecutive days of gains, taking the precious metal from the gapped up open of Monday at $1313 per ounce to end the week at $1341.70 on the December contract.
Nervous best describes US equity markets today, and with so many influences now coming to bear, and this nervous tension can only increase over the next few weeks.
As US equity markets continue to defy gravity and move inexorably higher, so the VIX slides ever lower as market complacency takes hold with risk on appetite continuing to remain firmly on the menu.
Bullish momentum for US equities remained firmly in the ascendency last week as bullish sentiment for the US dollar continues to weaken, and further extending the rally of the turbulent start to the year which saw major buying by the insiders as a result.
As each new year comes around, and we celebrate the new and say goodbye to the old, as traders we are never sure what it is precisely we are welcoming in, or indeed saying goodbye too.
Whilst the spotlight of the metals complex generally focuses on gold whose demise has been relentless, silver too is following the same path lower, and whilst yesterday’s price action for the industrial metal was less dramatic than for gold, the price action this morning has opened up the same technical weakness now self apparent on the daily gold chart.
These are interesting times for oil traders and speculators with Friday’s OPEC meeting in Vienna now on the horizon, and the question that will then be answered is whether the group will cut output to stem the supply glut that is now increasingly having to be held offshore around the oceans of the world.
Just like the children’s board game of snakes and ladders, or as it is known in the US as chutes and ladders, coming down the snakes is always much faster than climbing back up the ladders, and so it is proving for primary equity markets in the US.
