With much of the northern US battling icy arctic conditions this morning, Republicans in Iowa are heading to the polls to select their candidate for the presidential election in November, states Ian Murphy of MurphyTrading.com.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere is heating up in the Red Sea with the Houthis in Yemen launching a missile attack against a US warship over the weekend and a commercial vessel this morning.
Click the chart to enlarge
In the world of finance, US equity markets are closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day but earnings released by the big US banks on Friday came with a pinch of pessimism for the year ahead. Shareholders in JP Morgan (JPM) endured a roller coaster ride when the price gapped up at the open (right chart), then made a new all-time high, and abruptly reversed to close negative. The week left behind a one-bar reversal and upside washout which would be a signal to short if accompanied by a bearish divergence of some sort—unfortunately, it wasn’t (left chart). For the shortened trading week ahead, bear in mind we are building towards the peak of earnings season so the release date on every stock should be checked before trading it.
Learn more about Ian Murphy at MurphyTrading.com.
