Unable to Sustain Early Gains

We expect the index to return to the upside in its upcoming trading.

After the Dow Jones Industrial index recorded its highest level during its recent trading at 34,889.17, it rebounded from a decline to turn those early gains into losses at the end of trading by -0.33%. It lost about -113.36 points to settle at the end of trading at the level of 34,451.24.

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During the past week, the index recorded losses for the third consecutive week, by -0.78%, or 269.89 points.

19 of the index’s 30 components decreased, with the share of Salesforce Inc. by -3.22%, followed by Apple Inc. by -3.00%, followed by Intel Corp. By -2.85%.

Technology stocks came under pressure after reports of supply chain disruptions, due to China extending lockdowns related to curbing the outbreak of the new Corona virus to include cities and regions other than Shanghai.

Meanwhile, US data on Thursday showed a larger-than-expected rise in weekly jobless claims by 18K to 185K. While sales at US retailers rose 0.5% in March, the cost of imported goods such as oil and food rose 2.6% in March. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan’s measure of consumer confidence rose in April to 65.7 from March’s reading of 59.4.

New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Thursday that the Fed needs to raise the benchmark interest rate “urgently” to control inflation. When asked about a half-point hike on May 4, Williams said “that’s not a decision we’ve made yet” but added, “I think this is a reasonable option for us because the fed funds rate is very low.”

Technically, the index is trying to gain positive momentum that might help it recover and rise again, to base this decline on the support of its simple moving average for the previous 50 days, and in light of the dominance of the main bullish trend in the medium term along a slope line, as shown in the attached chart for a period of time (daily).

In addition, we notice the start of positive signals in the RSIs, after they reached oversold areas, in an exaggerated way compared to the index’s movement, which adds more positive pressure on its upcoming trades.

Therefore, we expect the index to return to the upside in its upcoming trading, as long as the support 34,000 remains, to target the first resistance levels at 35,372.26.