Dartline™ First Look – morning directional planner
March 10, 2010, 7:00 am EST — … The Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures up 1.20 to 1141.70, as exports in China were up 45.7 percent over a year earlier, beating analyst forecasts of 35 to 40 percent growth. Imports surged 44.7 percent, the agency said, reflecting growing demand in China as it emerges from the global crisis. China’s global trade surplus was $7.6 billion in February and the combined January-February surplus was $21.8 billion. Its trade surplus with the United States in the January-February period shrank by 27 percent to $20.9 billion. The gap with the 27-nation European Union, China’s biggest trading partner, widened by 34 percent to $22.3 billion. China’s combined trade surpluses with its major export markets were larger than its global surplus because it also ran substantial deficits with Australia, Brazil, Taiwan and other suppliers of iron ore, industrial components and other materials needed by its booming export manufacturers. The commerce minister, Chen Deming, cautioned Saturday that despite stronger recent trade, it will be two to three years before China’s exports return to pre-crisis levels. … Meanwhile, A market surge that began a year ago appears to have run out of steam recently. Traders are no longer looking for just anecdotal evidence that a recession is easing like they were last year. Now they want to see signs of sustained economic growth. With little economic data released since last week’s better-than-expected jobs report, investors haven’t made any big moves. However, a report due out Wednesday is expected to show business inventories rose 0.2 percent in January. … In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.23 point to 5,601.07 while Germany’s DAX rose 8.72 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,894.61. The CAC-40 in France was 5.78 points, or 0.2 percent, higher at 3,915.79. … Of interest — Britain Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed that the annual budget statement will be on March 24, meaning that it’s even more likely that the British general election will be on May 6 — election campaigns usually last a month or so in Britain. … The pound traded 0.8 percent lower at $1.4875, following the news that the recovery in Britain’s industrial sector ground to a halt in January — official figures showed that industrial production fell by 0.4 percent during the month, with manufacturing output down by an even greater 0.9 percent. Though the industrial sector only accounts for around 18 percent of the British economy, the figures reinforced fears that the British economy may contract again in the first quarter of the year following grim trade data on Tuesday. The pound has been undermined in recent weeks by growing concerns about the upcoming general election following the closing of the gap between the opposition Conservative Party and the governing Labour Party in a raft of opinion polls. Investors are worried that an unclear election outcome where no one party gets an overall majority may stymie attempts to get borrowing down. On Tuesday, Fitch Ratings said Britain’s triple A rating was merited but it did warn that more needs to be done by the next government to get a handle on Britain’s budget deficit, which is poised to be around 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product this year — not far off from Greece’s levels. The euro was 0.1 percent lower at $1.3585 while the dollar rose 0.5 percent to 90.36 yen. … . — Maintain resistance for the S&P 500 index at 1150.41 and support at 1102.80. Critical next two days as the index will determine near term direction whether resistance holds or not. Meanwhile, trade the market cautiously with a neutral bias.