FTSE trading help | Support 7072, 7040, 7013, 6934, 6886, 6789 Resistance 7100, 7120, 7150, 7163

Good morning. Fairly quiet on the news front over the weekend, with the election rhetoric hotting up a bit with the parties starting to outline their plans. Greens with a 60p tax bracket (as if) and Labour trying to convince everyone that the economy is in safe hands with Ed Balls as chancellor. Anyway, am leaving politics out of these emails from now on as I can see it being too close to call unfortunately and all sorts of a mess with results. Since hitting the 7100 level we have stalled a bit, though any more upside will most likely take us to 7120 and possibly 7150/7163 where we have the top of the Bianca channels for today. The key will be the pivot holding for the bulls at 7072.

US & Asia Overnight from Bloomberg
Asia’s benchmark stock gauge swung between gains and losses, after posting its biggest weekly rally in more than five months, as advances by phone companies countered declines for utilities.

SoftBank Corp. jumped 2.1 percent after a report that SnapDeal.com, in which the Japanese phone company owns a stake, is planning a U.S. listing. Mesoblast Ltd. surged 25 percent in Sydney after the biotechnology company said it’ll enter into an equity placement pact with Celgene Corp. Tokyo Gas Co. dropped 3.9 percent to lead a decline by utilities after the Japanese power producer said it missed its full-year profit target on impairment charges.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.1 percent to 152.14 as of 9:48 a.m. in Tokyo after climbing less than 0.1 percent. The measure jumped 3 percent last week, the steepest weekly gain since October and closing at its highest since 2008, as Hong Kong equities soared and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average briefly breached 20,000 for the first time since April 2000.

“It’s natural for the market to be a bit volatile when it approaches old highs,” said Andrew Clarke, director of trading at Hong Kong brokerage Mirabaud Asia Ltd. “But it has the potential to go much higher. Right now, Asia has some of the more attractive markets — Japan, China and Hong Kong for starters.”

Machinery orders in Japan slipped 0.4 percent in February from the prior month, less than the 2.2 percent decline forecast by economists, a report showed. China is due to report trade figures today.

Japan’s Topix index slid 0.2 percent in Tokyo, while South Korea’s Kospi index climbed 0.2 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index gained 0.1 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.3 percent.

Moderate Recovery
Japan’s economy has continued its moderate recovery trend, according to the text of Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s speech to a quarterly BOJ regional branch managers’ meeting in Tokyo on Monday.

Investors will watch Chinese trade data Monday to gauge whether the world’s second-largest economy will embark on more easing to stoke growth. Hong Kong-listed shares are outstripping global gains amid investment from mainland Chinese investors.

E-mini futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. The underlying gauge climbed 0.5 percent on Friday, extending its advance for the week to 1.7 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Johnson & Johnson and Intel Corp. are among S&P 500 members reporting quarterly results this week. [Ref]

FTSE Outlook

Todays pivot is 7072 and I am expecting that we will get a dip initially from this 7090 area towards that. If that holds for the bulls then a push back towards 7100 is most likely, which if broken leads to resistance at 7120. Above that we have the top of the Bianca channels in play at 7150 and 7163 – so a short around this area looks promising. If the pivot breaks then he next level of support is around the 7046 area where we have S1, with 7000 below that and the weekly pivot at 6997. A level that the bulls will be desperate to defend to keep the FTSE above 7000. On the face of it, despite the stalling at 7100, a long off the pivot looks like it might be a promising trade, though obviously keep the stops tight and switch to short if it starts to break. Resistance at 7097 initially for any 7am climb.

I hope the above trading help, levels and thoughts help you today. Good luck!