Trading Halted On The NASDAQ

Asian markets saw a rally today as the Nikkei jumped 2 percent. Markets tracked global gains as we received good global manufacturing data from the United States.

The U.S

ufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) had its best printing since last March. Euro zone PMI also beat expectations. These follow the good Chinese flash PMI which hit a four month high earlier this week.

The NASDAQ was shut overnight for 3 hours. This all but brought trading to a halt across a huge cross section of listed equities. The financial damage to the NASAQ could measure in the several hundreds of thousands dollars and brings to the forefront the vulnerabilities of the exchange. This will bring the exchange under even more scrutiny as it is already being looked at because of the Facebook IPO disaster.

STOCKS

The Nikkei 225 spiked over 2 percent on the day to close at 13,681.40. The Kospi came off its monthly low and the Australian S&P/ASX has hit a new weekly high. The Shanghai closed flat around 2,070 points.

Despite the NASDAQ shutting trading down, U.S. markets finally saw some gains. The DJIA snapped its six day losing streak as it gained 66 points to close at 14,963. 74. Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ) led losers down 12 percent on poor earnings. Still the stock leads winners for the year, on the Dow, up 55 percent.

The S&P 500 closed up higher gaining 14 points and the NASDAQ rose almost 39 points on the day. We should point out that the DJIA is still below the key 15,000 level.

European markets were also up for the day. The FTSE 56 points but the German DAX led winners up 1.36 percent to close at 8,397.89.

CURRENCIES

The U.S. Dollar is still looking strong as he Dollar Index is trading above 81.00 near 81.50.

The EUR/USD (1.3348) has recovered a bit from a low of 1.3299. We look to be trading sideways for now as investors wait a clear signal. EUR/JPY (132.11) looks bullish and could test 132.29 today. The USD/JPY (98.98) could follow the Euro-Yen cross higher and test 100.00 as it is now above the key 98.40 level. Please see the below chart.

The GBP/USD (1.5582) is trading steady after falling. We could see a recovery to 1.5649 if the support at 1.5559 holds.

COMMODITIES

Gold (1376.00) has risen despite the Dollar Index strength. We are testing 1375.00 with a rise higher targeting 1380.00. Failure to push higher can test 1350 then 1300. Silver (23.12) is bullish as it trade sideways from 22.49 to 23.50. We could test 24 soon.

Copper (3.337) rose after good Chinese manufacturing data. We are sideways from 3.29 to 3.35 for now but could test 3.40 at some point.

TODAY’S OUTLOOK

The FED is unable to send the markets a clear message and we could see erratic trading into the close of the week. However, good global economic data can push us higher into the weekend which would be a welcomed relief. What would be better is if the DJIA closed above 15,000 today.