US climbed on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and - TopicsExpress

US climbed on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 reaching new all-time closing highs, after comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke that the Fed would stay accommodative. All 10 sectors of the S&P 500 Index rose, with Technology the best performer (+1.77%), and Oil and Gas the weakest performer (+0.91%). WTI Crude for Aug lost US$1.61, or 1.5%, to end at US$104.91/barrel while Brent for Aug delivery fell 78 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at US$107.73/barrel. Gold for Aug delivery added US$32.50 to end at US$1,279.90/ounce while Silver for Sep gained 79 cents to settle at US$19.96/ounce. Implications for Singapore Although Wall Street surged to new highs overnight, the Nikkei only opened modestly higher this morning (now +0.2%); and we suspect gains on the local bourse may also be more modest, especially after the 1.9% leap yesterday. Moreover, the STI has also entered into a previous congestion band (3233-3319); and we may see a potential retest of the lower boundary before we see more buying interest. Nevertheless, the short-term outlook remains somewhat more upbeat as the STI has just triggered the parabolic buy signal (and sell signal now sited around 3065); and the daily MACD indicator continues to trend up strongly inside the negative region. For now, main support remains at 3200, ahead of 3155 (centre of Bollinger band). On the upside, the next hurdle lies at 3265 (50% retracement of the 3464-3065 correction).