The USD was mixed against other major currencies.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell $3.63 to settle at $35.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantiles Exchange. The Nymex, like the stock and bond markets, will be closed on Thursday and re-open on Friday.


Markets overseas declined. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 2.37 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.26 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.93 percent and France's CAC-40 fell 0.39 percent. Germany's stock market was closed.

Technical Tool That Can Be Deployed To Verify The Existence Of A Market Trend

Using the DMI removes the guesswork involved with spotting trends and can also provide confirmation of trends identified by trendline by analysis. The DMI system is comprised of the ADX (average directional movement index) and the DI+ and DI- lines.


The ADX is used to determine whether or not a market is trending (regardless if it's up or down), with a reading over 25 indicating a trending market and a reading below 20 indicating no trend. The ADX is also a measure of the strength of a trend--the higher the ADX, the stronger the trend. Using the ADX, traders can determine whether or not there is a trend and thus whether or not to use a trend following system