Regency View:

Portfolio Update

After a sharp sell-off towards the end of last week, the first week in May has seen equities grind slowly higher on both sides of the pond.

As we head towards the bank holiday and tomorrow’s US non-farm payrolls, we like the overall positioning of our portfolio:

LONG Abbott Laboratories (ABT) – a slow starter but showing signs of breaking out of its descending retracement channel.

SHORT Catterpillar (CAT) – we took partial profits at the start of the week and are running the second half of the trade with stops at break-even. Recent price action has seen the shares consolidate near their lows and this is indicative of further downside to come.

SHORT HSBC (HSBA) – like the FTSE, HSBC has been grinding higher this week in a series of small ranges. Whilst the trade is moderately against us, price action continues to indicate further downside and we are happy to remain in the trade.

FTSE 100 Daily Candle Chart