Summary:
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US500 pulls back from pivotal 2825 level
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Snap shares surge over 7% on analyst upgrade
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Housing data drops due to large revision
There’s been a bit of a dip lower in US indices today after reports that Trump and Xi have pushed back their meeting till at least April and in doing so this has dashed any hopes for an imminent solution (read more here). This has caused some weakness and seen the US500 once more come up short in an attempt to break key resistance around 2825. This is now a pretty clear and obvious line in the sand, and how price reacts to it may prove pivotal going forward.
The 2825 region is one to keep on Trader’s radars as a potentially pivotal swing level. The pullback has seen the 8 and 21 EMAs converge on H1. Price has rallied around 100 points since last Friday’s low. Source: xStation
Looking at individual shares, it’s been a good day so far for shareholders in Snap (SNAP.US on xStation) with the stock price surging over 7% higher shortly after the open. The rally in the social media company’s shares are likely due to a longtime skeptic upgrading the stock as BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield now recommends investors should buy. "Your initial reaction is likely why now and what changed, as virtually everything that could go wrong for Snapchat over the past couple years since going public has gone wrong," Greenfield began. "Performance advertisers are laser focused on return on investment and spend (and spend more) where they see a compelling return." Greenfield could see shares soaring as much as 50% over the next 12 months, as he issues his first ever buy rating on the stock.
The rally in SNAP has seen the stock move above the prior resistance around 10.50 and trade at its highest level since last August. Source: xStation
There’s little by the way of market moving economic data out from North America this afternoon, with housing figures the only release of note. January new homes sales fell quite sharply to 607k vs 622 expected, from 652k prior. This drop however is largely due to an upwards revision to the last month’s data, which was raised by 31k from the original print of 621k.
US housing sales pulled back fairly sharply in January, but this is mainly due to an upwards revision to the prior month. Overall, this metric still remains pretty strong compared to the past 5 years. Source: Bloomberg
