weeklypreviews.gif (1443 bytes)
updated 10th March 2008  

N.B. Above Chart is abstracted from NextView Program

Last week we said that, "With Dow Jones Industries dropping more than 300 pts last Friday, we could expect a big sell down in Asia on Monday opening. The question now is how much further the sell down will be, before a rebound emerge. Giving that last Friday was the first time the market breaks the trading range, we could expect the selling to continue for at least a few more days. We expect market will only begin to rebound near 18th March (the next Fed meeting), so for short term the market remains bearish. Especially there are some important economic data to be release this week, which are likely to be bad and could bring the index down further. However, we had not witnessed any four consecutive months of selling down since the beginning of the Bulls run in Oct'02. This is the first time we have seen such thing happened. Hence a potential rebound is really there, giving that the Fed meeting is only two weeks from now. Expect market to continue selling down in the beginning of the week and may start to rebound by end of the week." True enough, market continued to sell down through the week, with a brief rally on Thursday, but was quick to turn down again on Friday after the release of Non-farm payroll data. We also said that, "As for STI, we could expect a gap down on Monday opening. However, so long as the support at 2859 did not break, there still have chance for the Bull to fight back." Again we were right to the dot, STI did gap down and continued to fall till Friday when it hit the support at 2859 before making a slight rebound and closed at 2866. So, what could we expect next week? Is the selling going to continue or a rebound is going to happen soon?

On Friday we had witnessed a sell off during opening time after the release of worst than expected Non-farm payroll data, Dow Jones Industrial then make a rebound into positive territory before closing down -146 pts again. This had indicated to us that market remains very weak and that there is no conviction in buying. In other word, we have not seen the bottom yet! And that market is likely to continue heading lower and possibly breaking the previous low at 11634. One of the leading indicator, S&P 100 index had already broken into new low on Friday, Citi group is another leading indicator saying that we should be heading to new low. As such, we believe the 11634 low on Dow Jones Industrial will likely to give way by next week. We expect  market to go down on Monday with a brief rebound on Tuesday and Wednesday before another big sell off by end of the week. The sell off by end of the week will likely to be a severe one just before the FOMC meeting on 18th March. The reasons for a big sell off towards end of the week could be due to Thursday Retail Sales and Friday's CPI data. However,  we had not witnessed any four consecutive months of selling down since the beginning of the Bulls run in Oct'02. This is the first time we have seen such thing happened. Hence a potential rebound is really there, giving that the Fed meeting is only one weeks from now. Expect market to continue selling down in the beginning of the week and may start to rebound by mid week before another selling by end of the week. We need to see the momentum of the current selling down, before understand their wave structure. The reason that I am particularly interested in this juncture, is because the winner will basically decide whether we are heading for a mild recession or a deep depression! In technical term, it will provide a clearer picture as to whether we are heading for a WAVE 4 of bigger degree before another bull run OR we are heading for an A-B-C bigger degree melt down. I am confident market will tell us a clearer direction in the next two weeks, and by then we have plenty of time to decide our future investment strategy. Right now the wiser choice is to stay sideline and wait for market to tell us the direction! There are a series of economic data such as Thursday's Retail Sales and Jobless Claim, Friday's CPI. These data is likely to move the market. As for STI, we could expect a gap down on Monday opening and that STI may test the recent low of 2746 this week. However, so long as the support at 2746 did not break, there still have chance for the Bull to fight back. So do stay tune and wait for the result on this battle between the Bull and the Bear. At this juncture, if you are long term investor you may want to start buying some shares, giving that there are plenty of good value shares available in the market. As for traders, you may have to stay short until some technical divergence emerge. For STI, the 2746 will likely be tested this week.
The following are the support and resistance to watch for Dow Jones, Hang Seng and Nikkei next week.

                       Dow Jones      Hang Seng     Nikkei
Resistance       12350            23615            13365
Support             11630            21700            12572

As for STI the resistances and supports are as follow:
Resistance:      2930, 2950, 3020, 3050, 3100, 3130
Support:            2850, 2746, 2650, 2580

Events To watch For The Coming Week:

  1. The movement in Dow Jones Industry and NASDAQ..
  2. The movement in currencies, oil and commodities price.
  3. The economics data, such as Thursday's Retail Sales and Jobless Claim, Friday's CPI.
  4. The FOMC meeting on 18th March..

The following are two possible wave counts on STI as at to-date:

  1. Preferred Count (60% probability)-- bullish count
    My preferred count calling for a top at 2502 (on 7/1/2000) as wave ((1)), it then follow by a two year sell off on wave ((2)) to 1197 (on 28/9/2001). The index had then entered into an  impulsive wave ((3)) that ended at 3906. We are now in the development of wave ((4)), of which we expect it to be a big triangle formation that take about one to two years to complete. The recent sell down is the first leg of wave ((4)), which will take a form of a-b-c and reaches the potential target of 2770, as the wave (a) of ((4)). The index will then continue to develop the (a)-(b)-(c)-(d)-(e) triangle formation.
     
  2. Alternate Count (40% probability)-- bearish count
    My alternate count calling for a top at 2502 (on 7/1/2000) as wave ((1)), it then follow by a two year sell off on wave ((2)) to 1197 (on 28/9/2001). The index had then entered into an  impulsive wave ((3)) that ended at 2666 in May 2006. The index had then entered into wave ((5)) that ended on 3906 in October'07. We are now in the downtrend bear market, which will last for a few years! Although this count remains as the least chance as compare to my preferred count. If the index breaks below 2776 convincingly on very high volume, the odd on bear market will significantly increase.

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