The Brains Trust, page-11358

Wall Street closed mixed but I do like the way everything bounced off the earlier lows. The US dollar was higher but is looking particularly toppy.  If the US dollar starts to weaken, could we see the major stocks in the US benefit?  Whereas we had seen the smaller stocks typified by the Russell 2000 achieving new highs in the past few weeks, perhaps the emphasis might now switch to the majors. S&P has been stuck in a sideways pattern for the past couple of weeks and looks like it wants to move higher.

As mentioned above, the US dollar finished higher. I like the chart even less today! But what is interesting is that each day – for the want of a better word I will call them traders – take a different currency up against the US dollar.  Today it was the Yen, yesterday the Swissy and the day before that the Aussie dollar.  Talking of which, I think we have completed a nice head and shoulders bottom here on our dollar.

Europe finished lower. As mentioned yesterday I believe the high yesterday of 7903 in the FTSE was the top in this index.

Commodities were mixed but copper which I was hoping was about to break its downtrend, turned lower. These markets are frustrating at the moment. But my biggest concern on the commodity scene was iron ore and coal.  Iron ore is just hanging in by a thread while thermal coal has had a fabulous rally over recent weeks right up under the highs of the past year but turned down sharply in the latest session. Coking coal has also rolled over.

Which brings us back to the Australian market. The XJO is still locked in the downtrend from the recent rounded top. If it can close above 6025 today, it will go a long way towards reversing the trend of recent days.  Gold stocks bounced again yesterday.  I do like this sector consolidating in this area.