The Nasdaq 100 is off the highs posted yesterday as the Initial Jobless Claims for this week came in at 3839K, worse than the 3500K that was expected by the markets. This figure brings the total number of people who have applied for unemployment benefits for the first time to just about 30 million. Economists now fear that the unemployment rate in the US may be approaching double-digit figures, last seen nearly a century ago during the Great Depression.
The Nasdaq 100 futures are trading at 0.19% lower on the day after the FOMC Chair’s speech of yesterday had boosted investor sentiment and enabled the Nasdaq to push beyond the 9,000 mark for the first time since the coronavirus-induced selloff hit the markets. The concerns of the employment situation in the US were enough to override the strong gains posted by Nasdaq 100-listed stocks such as Tesla and Facebook. TSLA and FB are up 6.5% and 5.23% as at the time of writing.
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Technical Outlook for Nasdaq 100
The FOMC Chair Jerome Powell highlighted the resolve of the Fed to sustain the measures already rolled out to support the US economy for quite some time to come, which was hailed by investors on the Nasdaq 100. This sentiment drove the index past the 8945.7 resistance, which had held firm for some time now. The Nasdaq 100 pushed up to the 9167.4 resistance but pulled back below 9092.3. It is now bouncing off the 8945.7 price level. If today’s candle can stay above this price level, a breakout would be confirmed, and this could allow the Nasdaq 100 aim for upside targets at 9092.3, 9167.4 and possibly 9264.4.
On the flip side, failure of today’s candle to stay above 8945.7 allows the Nasdaq 100 to fall back into the range defined by the 8945.7 price level as the upper boundary, and 8442.5 as the lower boundary. A further downside push that approaches 8442.5 must breach 8691.0 along the way. Below 8442.5, downside targets continue to exist at 8160.2 and 8015.5.
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