Hello traders everywhere! Adam Hewison here, President of INO.com and Co-creator of MarketClub, with your mid-day market update for Friday, the 19th of April.
Biggest Down Week For The Markets All Year
To say it has been quite a week would be an understatement. The markets have been largely pushed into the background and have been dominated by the news coming out about the Boston bombings. Even the earnings season has taken a backseat to current events. The bottom line is that unless there is a massive rally in most markets, they will close out the week with significant losses.
Most Equity Markets Close Lower For The Week
The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ have both flashed negative weekly Trade Triangles indicating that a neutral position should be taken in both of these indices. Only the DOW continues to remain in a bull trend and that will change should we see the DOW dip below 14,395.
Watch Today's Video Update Here
Q1 Earnings Have Been Mixed
The golden arches of McDonald's (NYSE:MCD), perhaps a little tarnished by the drop in gold, reported first-quarter profits that fell short of Wall Street's expectations.
General Electric (NYSE:GE), the largest US industrial company, reported a 14% rise in post-tax profits for the first quarter, despite a worse than expected slump in its European business.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) weathered an ugly drop in computer sales and reported a 19% rise in profits based on software sales.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) investors had mixed feelings about Google’s first-quarter financial results. Concerns center around its core search advertising business and the increasing competitive landscape coming into that arena from the likes of Twitter and Facebook. The company’s revenue slightly missed analysts’ expectations.
Gold Moves Lower For The Week
Despite a dramatic recovery from lows, gold still appears to be closing out the week with a loss of over 5%. The back of the bull market is now clearly broken and it would appear to this observer that gold still has further to go on the downside.
Crude Oil Moves Lower For The Week
Crude oil held up a little better than gold, but still managed to close lower for the week, with a loss of 3.5%. The trend for crude oil is now on the downside. I am expecting to see this market trade down to its major support area which is right around the $80 mark.
In A Counter-Trend Move, The Dollar Finishes Flat For The Week
It would appear as of this writing that the dollar is going to close out the week basically unchanged against the Euro. This is quite a victory for the dollar as everything else is pretty much tanking to the downside.
Watch Today's Video Update Here
Potential Chaos Ahead
North Korea - ticking down towards ...
Japan - Kuroda will do whatever it takes ...
Europe - Cyprus, Portugal and Ireland - economic risk
The FED - Hints QE is coming to an end
May 19th – Debt ceiling suspension expire
Have a great trading day,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub
Adam appears frequently on the following financial news channels as a guest expert. Click on any cable logo to watch Adam's latest appearance.
