US futures lower in thin holiday trading
|- Political jitters hurt demand for US equities, with futures down after advancing for six consecutive days.
- Crude oil prices extended their latest rally to fresh 2-week highs, limiting indexes' slides.
There was no activity in the US this Monday, as markets were closed amid the celebration of the President day. Local indexes, however, fell in futures trading, snapping a six-day rally, although they closed off their daily lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average heads into the Asian opening around 25,196, some 30 points below Friday's close.
Sentiment was hurt by the indictment of Russian nationals last Friday, for illegally interfering with the US presidential election in favor of the current president Donald Trump. This Monday, the Kremlin´s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov was on the wires, signaling that there's no significant evidence of Russian meddling in US election
Crude oil prices reached fresh 2-week highs on comments of Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid Al-Falih, who said producer nations should keep output cuts in place for the whole of 2018, even if that implies shortage. Adding to crude´s bullish case were tensions in the Middle-East after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel could act against Iran following border incidents in Syria. The advance in crude backed the late recovery in equities.
From a technical point of view, the daily chart for the DJIA shows that the index managed to settle a few points above a bearish 20 DMA, while the Momentum indicator keeps heading higher within negative territory, but the RSI indicator turned flat around 50, limiting chances of a steeper advance. Shorter term, and according to the 4 hours chart, the index presents a neutral-to-positive stance, as technical indicators have bounced modestly from their mid-lines, but hold well below their previous highs, while the index struggles around its 20 and 100 SMAs, both around the current level.
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