EurAnalysis

Ok, I see the difference... I don't always use the wick as my second anchor point. It depends on where the body closes are clustered. In this case the bodies were clustered higher on the second drop whereas you have your anchor at the end if the wick.

Slight difference in preferences.

Top Stories

Staples earnings slump, sending shares diving. Staples (SPLS) Q2 adjusted EPS slumped 18% to $0.22 but was in line with forecasts, while revenue slipped 6% to $5.5B and missed consensus. The office-supplies retailer blamed the earnings fall on softer-than-expected sales in North America, and continuing weakness in Europe and Australia. Staples has adopted an even more conservative FY outlook, and now expects flat sales growth and EPS increasing in the low single-digits. Shares were -5.2% premarket.

Carlyle gets Getty in $3.3B deal. Carlyle Group (CG) has teamed up with Getty Images' management to purchase the company from Hellman & Friedman for $3.3B. The transaction is expected to close this year, with the deal price less than the $4B originally sought.

Major retailers to unveil mobile payments system. Fourteen leading retailers are expected to today unveil the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), an initiative to jointly develop a mobile-payments network that will compete with those from Google (GOOG) and cellular carriers, the WSJ reports. The retailers include Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT), Best Buy (BBY) and Lowe's (LOW).

Top Stock News

Berkshire exits Intel after just nine months. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) had an unusually active quarter in Q2, which included selling its 7.7M Intel (INTC) shares just nine months after buying into the chipmaker. Berkshire also significantly reduced its holdings in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kraft (KFT) and Procter & Gamble (PG), while buying into Phillips 66 (PSX) and National Oilwell Varco (NOV).

Lloyds continues asset sales with £1B deal. Lloyds (LYG) has agreed to sell a portfolio of P-E related investments to London-based Coller Capital for £1.03B, although once the transaction is completed, the bank will continue to manage the fund for a fee of less than £10M/year.

NYT names BBC chief as new CEO. Outgoing BBC boss Mark Thompson has been named as CEO of The New York Times (NYT), filling a vacancy that had been open after Janet Robinson left last December. Thompson will join in November and also sit on the company's board; his appointment had been the subject of speculation throughout the summer.

Nokia to launch Windows 8 phone soon. Nokia (NOK) shares jumped 5.6% premarket after CEO Stephen Elop said the phone maker will launch a Windows 8 smartphone "relatively near term," and didn't deny that it could be at the company's trade show in Helsinki on Sept. 5-6. That's a week before an Apple event on Sept. 12, when it could unveil a new iPhone. Meanwhile, RIM (RIMM) CEO Thorsten Heins called the firm's data network, the subject of IBM (IBM) buyout rumors, a "key strategic asset."

Fannie, Freddie increase pressure over soured loans. With Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) increasing their efforts to persuade banks to buy back soured mortgages, five top lenders - BofA (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan (JPM), Citigroup (C) and Ally Financial - set aside nearly $3B in H1 to repurchase the loans, Bloomberg calculates. Regional lenders such as SunTrust Banks (STI) put aside an extra $1.3B.

StanChart still faces fines despite NY deal. Standard Chartered (SCBFF.PK) shares rose 4.8% in London following its $340M settlement with New York's Department of Financial Services yesterday over the bank's dealings with Iran. However, StanChart still faces fines from other U.S. regulators, including the Treasury and Justice Department, and following the bloodletting at Barclays (BCS) over Libor, the jobs of senior management could be at risk.

Cisco's profit seen rising but analysts are concerned. Cisco's (CSCO) FQ4 earnings are due out after the bell, with analysts expecting that EPS rose to $0.46 from $0.40 a year ago as revenue increased 3.6% to $11.6B. JMP reckons the quarter was "more back-end loaded than normal" and featured increased discounting toward the end. FBR has slashed its estimates due to the usual assortment of worries about macro conditions and capex, as well as aggressive pricing.

Chinese firms looking to pull U.S. listings. Chinese companies are beginning to feel the pinch from listing their shares on U.S. bourses. Rife with accounting scandals and clashes about oversight, some are now looking to pull out and head for home, and with the blessing of Chinese authorities. One state bank has reportedly provided $1B in loans just to help companies with listings abroad move them to Chinese exchanges.

Top Economic & Other News

Chinese bad loans rise again. Chinese non-performing loans rose by 18.2B yuan ($2.86B) in Q2 to 456.4B yuan - the third consecutive quarter of increases. The data comes as Caixin Online describes how local governments have been attempting to stimulate the real-estate market, in direct contravention of the central government's desire to cool it. What happened to China being totalitarian?

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Today's Markets:
In Asia, Japan -0.1%. Hong Kong -1.2%. China -1.1%. India +0.5%.
In Europe, at midday, London -0.3%. Paris -0.3%. Frankfurt -0.3%.
Futures at 7:00: Dow -0.1%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq -0.1%. Crude -0.3% to $93.13. Gold -0.4% to $1596.40.

Today's economic calendar:

7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Consumer Price Index
8:30 Empire State Mfg Survey
9:00 Treasury International Capital
9:15 Industrial Production
10:00 NAHB Housing Market Index
10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories
8:00 PM Fed's Kocherlakota: Federal Reserve Overview and the Role of the Board of Directors

Daily Forex Brief London: Wednesday 15th August 2012

More questions than answers Yet another day when the price action threw up more questions than answers. With stocks moving forward after some slightly better GDP data out of both Germany and France, safe-haven favourites such as the Japanese yen were on the defensive, as was the gold price. Rather curiously however, the best-performing currency was the dollar, which was relatively well-bid for most of the day. Stronger-than-expected retail sales for July contributed to the more positive tone. In response, USD/JPY threatened the 79.0 level, now not that far short of both the 50d and 200d moving average, while EUR/JPY printed a one-week high. Part of the explanation for the yen's slippage, not just against the dollar but also other majors over recent days, resides in the latest BoJ Minutes, which appear to suggest that the Board is much closer to implementing further stimulatory measures than the market felt was likely. Also rather mysterious was the demise of the high-beta currencies, with the Aussie sliding below 1.05 on a day when risk appetite was more upbeat. The AUD slid further overnight after some disappointing news on consumer confidence. Looking ahead today, trading conditions in currency markets are likely to remain subdued as most of Europe is out because of Assumption Day.
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Nice one M......S2 / fib expansion and in a time zone too

CGB hi bud, is there any particular way you trade oil. you mentioned it to me a few weeks ago. i have been trading it since not too often using a simple resistance/support idea and am quite successful but i'm beginning to think i am just lucky lol.

Then you're obviously doing something right if you're getting green pips.

I trade crude based on support/resistance and trendlines. Also key with crude is multiples of .20 cents. If price falls below round number support, more often than not, it will drop and bounce at the .80

If it moves above a round number support, watch for the .20 number.

If you look at crude right now, it just moved up from $93 and stopped at $93.23 before turning around. In the early London session, it dropped below $93 and stopped at $92.80 before turning around.

Crude right now has a symmetrical triangle on the hourly chart. This is a continuation pattern and I expect it to move above $94 in the next week or so. Daily is showing sideways consolidation. Several weeks ago I posted a chart showing an inverse head and shoulder formation on crude with the entry point at $84 and target of $96. I still hold that view.

Cheers!

closed majority of shorts, left one small position open on the table to see if we can make a break

reasoning: testing lower trend line

Thanks I thought I'd notify anybody hoping for a quick breakout.

On another note it's a positive sign that the boys are setting targets by fibs. Hopefully livelier action ahead than in the past few weeks...

Great trading neuron.

Forgot to post chart... Here it is.

Waiting for a long entry at $92.50 (200SMA and bottom trendline support)

thanks!

Good job!

Here's number 10 Vouch!

why thank you!

interesting observations cgb, I'll have to keep my eyes open for that kind of activity

thanks for the info, pc crashed just after my last trade lol. i really do like the agressive moves oil makes and as of yet i am not as familiar with it as i do with e/u g/u dow

Agreed - now we'll see if the confluence of the rising T/L off the 60m chart + MS 3 and the xx50 at the 100% expansion level becomes the target for the NY guys.....TWT

The horse isn't dead yet. Keep beating.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GLW4GnC_dz...20/1265760.jpg

Yup, it's doing it again. Plus we have 3 consecutive higher lows on the 15M chart. I'm long from 92.80 with a potential target for today of $93.40 but may let it ride depending on how crude inventories come out at 10:30 EST and it's now bumping heads with the 55EMA on hourly.

Gold now above $1600, support on USDX at 82.600, traders in the equity space playing out their position from last night (cafeine rush as I call the first 30 minutes of trading). S&P back above 1400.

Added a sell on audusd at 220 ema........in honor of Swissy!

Oh, I wouldn't be too hopeful. Plenty of buying down here a few days ago, remember?

But let's be prepared IF it happens...