What Happened On Friday Jan 19 2018
All three indexes started the day negative but despite a probable government shutdown, indexes still managed to close positive and at new highs.
Closing Statistics for Friday Jan 19 2018
S&P 500 Index Close
The S&P index ended up 12.27 to 2810.30
Dow Jones Index Close
The Dow Jones ended up 53.91 to 26,071.72
NASDAQ Index Close
The NASDAQ closed up 40.33 to 7336.38
Stock Market Outlook – Review of Friday Jan 19 2018
Chart Comments At The Close:
Friday saw the S&P move highs despite some early weakness. The close was inside the Upper Bollinger Band but left behind a bullish candlestick for the start of the week. All major moving averages are still climbing.
Stock Market Outlook: Technical Indicators:
Momentum: For momentum I use a 10 period when studying market direction. Momentum is positive and moving sideways.
MACD Histogram: For MACD Histogram, I am using the Fast Points set at 13, Slow Points at 26 and Smoothing at 9. MACD (Moving Averages Convergence / Divergence) issued a buy signal on Jan 4. That buy signal gained more strength on Friday.
Ultimate Oscillator: The Ultimate Oscillator settings are: Period 1 is 5, Period 2 is 10, Period 3 is 15, Factor 1 is 4, Factor 2 is 2 and Factor 3 is 1. These are not the default settings but are the settings I use with the S&P 500 chart set for 1 to 3 months. The Ultimate Oscillator signal is positive and moving sideways.
Slow Stochastic: For the Slow Stochastic I use the K period of 14 and D period of 3. The Slow Stochastic tries to predict the market direction further out than just one day. The Slow Stochastic is extremely overbought and has an up signal in place.
Relative Strength Index: The relative strength index is set for a period of 5 which gives it 5 days of market movement to monitor. It often is the first indicator to show an overbought or oversold signal. The RSI signal is also extremely overbought and rising.
Rate of Change: Rate Of Change is set for a 21 period. This indicator looks back 21 days and compares price action from the past to the present. The rate of change signal is positive and moving sideways staying at its best reading since Dec 2016.
Support Levels To Be Aware Of:
2675 and 2620 are light support.
There is good support at the 2550 level.
The S&P has light support at 2480. It also has light support at 2450 and good support at 2425. Below that there is some support at 2400, 2380, 2350. 2300 has the most support at present but would represent a full correction as a drop to this level would be almost 15%.
Stock Market Outlook for Tomorrow – Mon Jan 22 2018
The market on Friday took the probability of a government shutdown well in stride. Monday, certainly at the start, may be not so positive with stocks probably a bit weaker to start. However while weaker investors may decide on taking profits at the outset on Monday, more seasoned investors are waiting for any possible dip, to get into more positions. Therefore the likelihood of a large dip is slim for Monday morning. By noon we should see the market steadier and by the end of the day we could even see the market end positive. The market is extremely overbought but the general bias is unchanged at up.
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