STI chart reading

Finally the STI next direction is going to reveal soon. Last week analysis mentioned that if STI when crossover 2797 will ragain the upward momentun. 2808 and 2840 the Fibo 50% and 38.2% retracement. However if STI aboe to corss over 2888 or the 23.6% retracement will signify the potential for STI to break the new high recorded last year. at 2947....

The Singapore stock market has finished higher now in two of four trading days since the end of the modest two-day winning streak in which it had gathered nearly 25 points or 0.9 percent in the process. The Straits Times Index moved above the 2,790-point plateau, and now analysts are expecting more upside at the opening of trade on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly positive, thanks particularly to better than expected data from the United States. A surge in commodity prices also is expected to provide support, along with steel, financial, technology and property stocks. The European and U.S. markets ended solidly higher on Friday, and now the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The STI finished sharply higher on Friday, thanks to gains among the gaming stocks and financial shares.

For the day, the index collected 21.59 points or 1.3 percent to finish at 2,790.26. Genting Singapore surged 7.1 percent to lead the gainers.

The lead from Wall Street is sharply higher as stocks rose by substantial margins on Friday, thanks to news that the U.S. economy shed fewer jobs than expected in February. The major averages showed notable upward moves on the day, with the NASDAQ reaching its best closing level in well over a year.

The markets keyed in on a report from the Labor Department showing that the economy lost 36,000 jobs in February following a revised decrease of 26,000 jobs in January. The relatively modest decline surprised economists, who had expected a more substantial loss of about 68,000 jobs amid the impact of severe winter weather in parts of the country.

The report also revealed that the unemployment rate in February remained unchanged from the previous month at 9.7 percent. The unemployment rate had been expected to tick up to 9.8 percent.

The markets were able to build on their already strong gains after the Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit unexpectedly showed a modest increase in the month of January. Consumer credit increased by about $5.0 billion in January following a revised decrease of about $4.6 billion in December. The increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected credit to decrease by about $4.5 billion.

With the unexpected increase, consumer credit rose for the first time since January 2009, marking the biggest increase since July of 2008.