European Open: Cautious gains in Asia, FTSE to reclaim 7300?

Asian Indices:

• Australia's ASX 200 index rose by 5 points (0.07%) and currently trades at 7,360.00
• Japan's Nikkei 225 index has risen by 26.46 points (0.09%) and currently trades at 28,544.05
• Hong Kong's Hang Seng index has risen by 75.89 points (0.33%) and currently trades at 23,047.22
• China's A50 Index has fallen by -19.62 points (-0.12%) and currently trades at 15,771.66

UK and Europe:

• UK's FTSE 100 futures are currently up 17 points (0.24%), the cash market is currently estimated to open at 7,314.41
• Euro STOXX 50 futures are currently up 17 points (0.41%), the cash market is currently estimated to open at 4,191.99
• Germany's DAX futures are currently up 52 points (0.34%), the cash market is currently estimated to open at 15,499.44

US Futures:

• DJI futures are currently up 6 points (0.02%)
• S&P 500 futures are currently down -44.5 points (-0.28%)
• Nasdaq 100 futures are currently down -5.5 points (-0.12%)

Minor gains across Asia, European futures open higher

China’s equity markets took comfort from the State Planner assurances that growth would remain stable, with automobile and tech stocks taking the lead. The Nikkei gain back earlier gains with retailers dragging on the broader index, whilst the ASX 200 may close flat after giving back early gains then recouping later losses. Therefore, we could describe Asian trade as in a holding pattern, and whilst US futures have opened lower, their European counterparts have opened higher.

The FTSE 100 ready to reclaim 7300?

Momentum has returned higher for the FTSE 100, and the daily trend structure is appears increasingly bullish. A common feature for the index lately is to print a cycle low with a bearish candle, with two of the last three appearing around the 200-day eMA and the most recent higher low forming near the 100-day eMA.

Like most indices yesterday, the FTSE 100 rallied into a close. In fact, the bullish engulfing candle opened at the low of the day and closed at the high, making it a full bullish Marabuzo candle. The 50% retracement of such candle can provide support, which lands around 7250 – so any retracements which hold above this level could be of interest for bullish setups. And a break above 7300 brings the November and December highs into focus.

FTSE 350: Market Internals

FTSE 350: 4166.72 (1.38%) 21 December 2021

• 288 (82.05%) stocks advanced and 52 (14.81%) declined
• 7 stocks rose to a new 52-week high, 0 fell to new lows
• 51.57% of stocks closed above their 200-day average
• 100% of stocks closed above their 50-day average
• 18.23% of stocks closed above their 20-day average

Outperformers:

• + 9.59% - Carnival PLC (CCL.L)
• + 6.90% - International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (ICAG.L)
• + 6.63% - TUI AG (TUIGn.DE)

Underperformers:

• - 4.61% - PureTech Health PLC (PRTC.L)
• - 2.71% - Ocado Group PLC (OCDO.L)
• - 2.40% - Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC (DPH.L)

Up Next (Times in GMT)

The UK and US release final GDP data for Q3 at 07:00 GMT and 13:30 respectively. Given the lagging nature of the report at the best of times it is likely to be a none-event unless we see a significant deviation from the previous reads. Other than that, we may have to rely on traders appetite for Santa’s rally today to see if they can sustained yesterday’s rally.

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