The bulls seemingly can’t be stopped, with stocks rising again on Monday continuing the positive strength from last week’s better-than-expected payroll report. Some new wrinkles are starting to appear, however, as focus turns to big central bank policy meetings over the next two weeks.
The European Central Bank on March 10 is expected to announce another rate cut and an expansion of its ongoing bond purchase program, while the Federal Reserve on March 16 is expected to nod to a rollback of its four-rate-hikes-in-2016 forecast from December.
Any slipup, given ongoing worries including stalled corporate earnings and possible energy sector bonds defaults, could jeopardize the nice uptrend we’ve seen since Feb. 11. But, for now, the trend is higher as represented by fresh breakouts in these three stocks and ETFs. Long plays are still the place to be.
As we head into Tuesday’s trading, three of the most interesting charts shaping up right now appear to be those of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSEARCA:USO) and Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO).
Here’s a look at each.
Apple Inc. (AAPL)
Apple shares broke out of a three-month consolidation range last week as the tech giant entered its first a major uptrend since October. An upside break of the 20-day and 50-day moving averages, as well as a punch up and over its upper Bollinger Band, confirms the strength.
Hype is building for a product unveiling on March 15 — including a new 4-inch iPhone and revamped iPads — ahead of the even more hyped launch of the iPhone 7 in September.
Edge Pro subscribers just closed a trade in the March $100 AAPL calls for an 83%-plus gain.
United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (USO)
The USO, representative of crude oil prices in general, has burst up and out of a three-month trading range in the first uptrend indication since last summer.
The gain was fueled by a less-than-expected inventory build at the Cushing hub. Other catalysts include Friday’s U.S. drilling rig count decline (which hit the lowest level since December 2009) and ongoing talk of a possible Russia-OPEC production freeze agreement.
Analysts at Citigroup helped things along by saying crude prices may have reached a bottom.
Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO)
Mirroring the rise in crude oil, shares of MRO have jumped up and over its three-month consolidation range to initiate its first uptrend since October. The momentum, as shown in the stochastic indicator in the lower pane of the chart above, has been building since January.
Energy stocks in general are enjoying a surge of relative strength on a scale that hasn’t been seen since crude oil topped in the summer of 2014. As a result, I expect the upward movement in MRO to continue. Edge subscribers are already up 6% in the stock since it was recommended on March 4.
Anthony Mirhaydari is founder of the Edge and Edge Pro investment advisory newsletters. Free two- and four-week trial offers have been extended to InvestorPlace readers.
