Credit card giant Mastercard (MA) has broken a downward trend from early February and honestly I find myself using my Mastercard credit more than ever. My in-person and online shopping is not going to move the needle for this huge business, but I must admit I rarely see anyone use cash these days to purchase even everyday small purchases.
Let's check out the charts and indicators to see if the rally from the October low can continue.
In this updated daily bar chart of MA, below, we can see that prices have broken the pattern of lower lows and lower highs -the simple definition of a downtrend - in November. Prices are trading above the rising 50-day moving average line and above the bottoming 200-day line. The trading volume increased in late September and late October when prices bottomed but decreased on the November and December upswing.
The On-Balance-Volume (OBV) line has improved from October but it has not kept pace with the price action and has not broken its respective August high. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) oscillator has crossed to the downside for a take profit sell signal.
In this weekly Japanese candlestick of MA, below, I can see a mixed picture. The latest candle pattern shows a large upper shadow above $360 telling me that traders have rejected the highs for now. Prices are trading above the bottoming 40-week moving average line.
The weekly OBV line shows me a choppy pattern the past year and while the OBV line has improved in October and November it does not look like it has broken above the August zenith.
The MACD oscillator is close to crossing above the zero line for an outright buy signal.
In this daily Point and Figure chart of MA, below, we see a bullish chart with a $439 price target.
In this second Point and Figure chart of MA, below, we used weekly price data and here the software projects the $523 area as a potential price target.
Bottom line strategy: In full disclosure, I am going to watch a Mastercard baking and chocolate demo with Jacques Torres a.k.a. Mr. Chocolate this evening but I can look at the charts of MA objectively. Traders should be patient buyers of MA and wait for a pullback into the $350-$340 area before probing the long side. Risk to $330.
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