TECHNICAL ANALYSIS REPORT TODAY

Asia Pacific stocks were mostly up on Friday morning even as the latest Chinese economic data disappointed. The Shanghai composite is down 0.55% at 3,577.00. Overall, the Singapore MSCI down 0.25% at 354.95. Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index down 0.74% at 25,829. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 up 2.21% at 29,100, while the Topix index is up 1.64% at 2014.5. South Korea’s Kospi up 0.84% to 3202.59. Australia S&P/ASX 200 up 0.48% at 7521.7.

European equities Thursday closing. The DAX futures contract in Germany traded up 0.10% at 15840.59, CAC 40 futures up 0.06% at 6763.09 and the UK 100 futures contract in the U.K. up 0.20% at 7,163.91.

In U.S. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.37% at 35443.83. The S&P 500 up 0.28% at 4536.94 and the Nasdaq 100 up 0.08% at 15613.7, NYSE closes at 16926.71 up 0.48%.

In the Forex market, GBPUSD flat at 1.38302. The USDJPY up 0.11% at 110.025. The USDCHF up 0.01% at 0.91436. EURUSD flat at 1.18748, EUR/GBP up 0.05% at 0.85828. The USD/CNY up 0.05% at 6.4590 at the time of writing.

In the commodity market U.S. Gold futures up 0.22% at $1,812.99. Elsewhere, Silver futures up 0.33% to $23.950 per ounce, Platinum up 0.36% at $1002.48 per ounce, and Palladium up 0.42% at $2,419.00.

Crude Oil up on Friday; Brent crude oil up 0.47% at $73.15 per barrel while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (CLc1) is up 1.51% at $70.01.

In the Cryptocurrency Markets, BTCUSD at 49494.20 up 0.45%, Ethereum up 0.22% at 3795.06, Litecoin at 185.80 up 1.24%, at the time of writing.

TOP STOCKS TO WATCH OUT TODAY:

Marathon Oil Corp. up 4.085% at $11.72, Autodesk Inc. up 5.201% at $287.47,

Gap Inc. up 2.911% to $25.68, Visa Inc. down 2.581% to $224.18, Mastercard Inc. down 2.372% to $341.28, Fiserv Inc. down 2.121% at $115.83.

Economic news:

US: The Biden administration has no plans to release billions in Afghan gold, investments and foreign currency reserves parked in the United States that it froze after the Taliban’s takeover, despite pressure from humanitarian groups and others who say the cost may be the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy.

Much of the Afghan central bank’s $10 billion in assets are parked overseas, where they are considered a key instrument for the West to pressure the Taliban to respect women’s rights and the rule of law.

Any unfreezing of these assets may be months away, financial experts said.

Officials from the U.S. State Department, U.S. Treasury, White House National Security Council and other agencies have been in regular discussions about Afghanistan’s finances since the Taliban took over in mid-August, ahead of what the United Nations and others see as a looming humanitarian crisis.

Any decision to release the funds would likely involve top U.S. officials from several departments but will ultimately be up to President Joe Biden, the experts said.

Eurozone: Employers in Britain are still hunting for more recruits than they were just before the pandemic, according to a survey which added to signs of a tight labour market following the COVID-19 lockdowns and Brexit.

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation said on Friday that 1.66 million job advertisements were active during the week to Aug. 29, higher than the 1.55 million averages in January and February 2020 and little changed from levels earlier in August.

New job ads posted during the week stood at 193,000, also above the January-February 2020 average of 171,000.

“Demand for workers remains very high across the economy and shows no signs of weakening,” REC Chief Executive Neil Carberry said. “With businesses in the particularly squeezed food, logistics and hospitality sectors starting to gear up for Christmas, the months ahead could be difficult – even with a large number of people coming off furlough in August and September,” he said.

Britain’s unemployment rate of 4.7% in the three months to June is higher than before the crisis when it stood at just under 4% but it has defied forecasts that it would hit 10% or higher during the pandemic crisis thanks in large part to the government’s wage subsidy scheme.

Important Data: UK Composite PMI (Aug) today at 4:30 this time estimated 55.3, previously which was 59.2. UK Services PMI (Aug) today at 4:30 this time estimated 55.5, previously which was 59.6. EURO ZONE Retail Sales (MoM) (Jul) today at 5:00 this time estimated 0.1%, previously which was 1.5%. US Nonfarm Payrolls (Aug) today at 8:30 this time estimated 750K, previously which was 943K.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

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