XJO Weekly Chart.XJO up this week +1.31%.The XJO is in a strong...

XJO Weekly Chart.

XJO up this week +1.31%.

The XJO is in a strong up-trend. The 10-Week MA has been steadily rising since a consolidation in the latter part of the first half of the year.

Daily Chart.

On Friday, XJO rose +0.85% which took the Index to an all-time closing high.

10-Day MA has been rising throughout the month of November.

The range looks close to the top if the rise from 1-8 November is repeated.

Any pull-back is likely to be bought.

We are almost into December. The beginning of December tends to dip then rise in the latter part of the month for the fabled Santa Rally. The Santa Rally occurs as a regular event but there are no guarantees. The SP500 has experienced a Santa Rally 78% of the time. As a seasonal event, that has a very high rating.

Sector results for this week:

Eight Sectors were up this week with three down. (XGD is not a Sector but an industry group within XMJ - Materials.)

Best performer this week was Energy +4.32% which may indicate a reverseal in its recent down trend.

Utilities, which is often affected by performance in Energy, was up +3.43%.

The two biggest sectors are Financials and Materials. They had similar performances this week, XXJ up +1.8% and XMJ up +1.69%.

Property was virtually flat -0.03%.

Technology was the worst performer after Wisetech dropped precipitiously on Friday. XIJ down -2.94%. Wisetech, which is the largest stock in the sector, was down -12.37% on Friday, but it finished well off its lows as buy-the-dippers flooded into the stock.

Gold Miners (XGD) out shone all the sectors, up +10.35% this week. XGD can be volatile but savvy traders can make plenty of money trading the swings in the XGD.

U.S. Dollar

The U.S. Dollar has a big effect on Australian resource stocks. Commodities tend to be priced in U.S. Dollars. If the US$ falls, Australian resource stocks benefit. And vice versa. If the US$ rises, Ozzie resources tend to fall.

This week, Ozzie resources had a good week. Energy up +4.32%, and Materials up +1.69$. Yes. The US$ went down, -0.46%. But that's not the full story. US$ rose on Thursday, with big volume, which suggests the fall in the US$ may be over. And that will result in falls in Ozzie resource stocks. Swings and roundabouts.

The long tail on the Thursday candle indicates intra-day volume. The width of the candle is an indication of how much volume came into trading that day.

Thursday was a bullish indication. Not a positive for Australian resources.

New Highs and New Lows.

I use this as a guide to long-term investments. While New Highs exceed New Lows, the out-look for long-term investments is positive.

We can see that there was a small dip August, 2024, but the chart quickly recovered and has been positive for long-term investments since the beginning of this year.

Conclusion

The Australian market is in a long-term up-trend. New Highs and New Lows indicate a favourable environment for long term investments.

Resource stocks may be hit with a US$ negative environment in the coming week. (US$ rising.). This needs monitoring.

Full 20 Leaders Weekly Wrap later this weekend.

Take care