FTSE for Friday: what will stocks do ahead of Trump's inauguration?
On the final trading session before the President-elect officially becomes the most powerful person in the world (again), independent analyst Alistair Strang reveals what might happen on the stock market today.
17th January 2025 07:40
by Alistair Strang from Trends and Targets
On Thursday, the FTSE 100 managed to close the session higher than at any point since May 2024.
As mentioned recently, we’ve long had a suspicion the UK market shall behave fairly flamboyantly once Mr Trump's coronation takes place on Monday. We didn’t enjoy watching the ridiculous effort to finally attain last Friday's target of 8,293 points, the rise fading at the closing level of 8,392 points.
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But with the index managing to close a session at a “higher high” and above the immediate downtrend, it would be churlish not to hope for some continued growth. Unfortunately, market futures with a high of 8,432 tend to suggest Friday will be a day where any initial gains shall be swallowed by worldwide anguish at Mr Biden leaving the White House.
Cutting to the core issue, UK market futures achieved inspiring heights during the night, making us suspect the FTSE 100 shall be spiked upwards at the market open, only to lose these gains as the day progresses. Our only consolation comes if the FTSE is spiked above 8,425 as this should make a day of gains difficult to avoid.
In theory, such a triggering movement calculates with the potential of ongoing traffic to an initial 8,461 points with our secondary, if bettered, an eventual 8,569 points. If triggered, the tightest stop is ridiculous at 8,350 points.
Our alternate scenario questions the potentials, should the FTSE meander below 8,344 points. This threatens reversals to an initial 8,323 points with secondary, if bettered, at 8,304 along with a hopeful bounce.
Have a good weekend.
Source: Trends and Targets. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Alistair Strang has led high-profile and "top secret" software projects since the late 1970s and won the original John Logie Baird Award for inventors and innovators. After the financial crash, he wanted to know "how it worked" with a view to mimicking existing trading formulas and predicting what was coming next. His results speak for themselves as he continually refines the methodology.
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