Commodities Countdown

Commodities Tighten The Noose 2018-02-22 Video

Greg Schnell

Greg Schnell

Chief Technical Analyst, Osprey Strategic

  • US Dollar goes sideways for 5 weeks
  • Oil hovers near the 50 DMA
  • Natural Gas holds $2.60
  • Gold pulls back
  • Three stocks make up 50% of the S&P 500 bounce
  • Video link inside

The big news on the US Dollar continues to be no news. Rather than breaking support and plummeting, the US Dollar continues to trade sideways for 6 weeks after breaking support. The phrase 'hurry up and wait' comes to mind. With a Friday trading day left, watch to see if the dollar can make a higher high. Today's chart has not updated at time of publishing, but it was another small move as part of an inside week. 


West Texas got a boost today and moved back above the 50-day moving average. While that is good, the stocks fail to follow any hint from oil. The XOP ETF is almost 10% below the 50 DMA.

Natural Gas continues to hold around $2.60, but it is not in a hurry to move up it seems.

Gold touched resistance and fled like it was an electric fence. Now it sits halfway between support and resistance.

I appeared on the MarketWatchers Live show this week with Tom Bowley and Erin Heim. It was a quick show as the time just flies. I spent a little too long covering off my segment, but I discussed how line charts can produce different highs on different time frames. I also covered this in the Stock Charts For Dummies book, which is available wherever books are sold.

On my Twitter feed today, Stephanie Link of CNBC's Half Time Fast Money Show pointed out that three stocks are responsible for 50% of the S&P 500's bounce. Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix are doing the heavy lifting. Technology stocks are doing 75 % of the lifting so there are a lot of sectors failing to bounce so far. At this point, watch price action and try not to overtrade.

Lastly, here is the video link for this week's Commodities Countdown.

Commodities Go Flat 2018-02-22 Video from StockCharts.com on Vimeo.

Good trading,
Greg Schnell, CMT, MFTA

Greg Schnell
About the author: , CMT, MFTA is Chief Technical Analyst at Osprey Strategic specializing in intermarket and commodities analysis. He is also the co-author of Stock Charts For Dummies (Wiley, 2018). Based in Calgary, Greg is a board member of the Canadian Society of Technical Analysts (CSTA) and the chairman of the CSTA Calgary chapter. He is an active member of both the CMT Association and the International Federation of Technical Analysts (IFTA). Learn More