Friday, November 11, 2011

The futures had recouped most of Thursday's bearish impulse leg at the bell, but they'll need to rally above 34.810 today to equalize the give-and-take between bulls and bears ahead of the weekend.  More bullish still would be a close above 34.990, since that would put in play the 37.870 target of a larger pattern begun on October 20 from 29.935.

Yesterday's bullish turn came from $2.40 above a 1734.20 downside target, but the bullish implications of this will not be 'actualized' until such time as the bounce achieves a minimum 1780.30 today.  That's not quite an 'external' peak on the 30-minute chart, visually speaking, but it'll do for purposes of reckoning impulsiveness on the lesser charts. Night owls should plan on bottom-fishing at the 1743.70 midpoint support shown if the opportunity arises.

Yesterday's pooch-screwing was centered mainly on a 1237.50 midpoint resistance that's associated with a 'D' target at 1250.25.  Although I won't pretend to care which way things go -- it is a Friday, after all -- I'll mention that the look-to-the-left peak at 1246.50 shown in the chart could provide an excellent 'camo' opportunity to get long if there's a rally that stalls and pulls back from somewhere between it and the more obvious high at 1249.25.   The November 16-17 Webinar will be held much earlier in the day in order to accommodate students from Europe who would otherwise be in session in the middle of the night. Both segments of the two-day class will begin at 5 p.m. London time. Click here if you’d like further details, along with a $50 discount.

The good news is that Silver Wheaton appears to have a 15% rally ahead that will be well nigh unstoppable. Push and pull will combine to lift the stock, respectively, via a Hidden Pivot rally target at 40.70, but also via the magnetic attraction of a trendline that has figured prominently in the SLW's ups and downs for more than a year.  A two-day close above the trendline should suffice to set it on its way toward new all-time highs, but until that happens we should not take for granted that bulls still rule.  The 36.49 midpoint resistance of the pattern shown has already been exceeded by a whopping 89 cents, lending weight, if not quite certitude, to the 40.70 target that sits, as of today, just above the trendline.

Groupon’s $700 million IPO last week proved that thieves and lunatics, working hand in hand and impelled by naked greed, remain a dominant force in today’s markets. With America rapidly on its way to becoming Nickel-and-Dime Nation, perhaps those who snapped up 35 million Groupon shares at huge premiums on opening day knew what they were doing? We were reminded of Groupon’s visceral appeal this morning when we opened a G-mail from them promising $5 off the next Groupon purchase.  Had we known this opportunity-of-a-lifetime would be sitting in our mailbox when we awoke, we would scarcely have slept the night before.  Imagine what the company would be worth if it can sell just one $10 Groupon to each and every Chinaman. If and when that happens, and assuming the Chinese don’t rip off the idea first, Groupon at $28 per share may turn out to have been a steal. Or perhaps not. There is always the chance that Google will come along, even before the Chinese have stolen the idea, and do it better themselves. Google, as everyone knows, does whatever it is doing better than just about any other company. That is why Microsoft’s Bing! search engine isn’t even in the race, despite ginned-up statistics that would have us believe the product is quickly saturating its market.  In fact, Bing! has gotten as far as it has only with a huge, artificial boost from Microsoft’s weekly laxative of security patches, gratuitous updates and other bitware effluvia. Turns out that one of those updates stealthily inserted a Bing! search field into Firefox’s tool bar, and that it takes a registry hack to get rid of it. (Warning: Half-measures will only allow Bing! to return again and again and again, like the proverbial bad penny.) If you want to know