Forex Commentary:

The safe-haven Swiss franc gained broadly on Thursday, lifted by Middle East tensions, while the dollar struggled, partly pressured by the decline in U.S. Treasury yields and technical factors.

The franc, traditionally sought during periods of geopolitical tension, will likely remain firm against other currencies if events in the Middle East escalate. The dollar, on the other hand, may continue to weaken, as investors consolidate recent gains racked up against the yen and euro.

The euro was last up 0.2 percent at $1.3605. The dollar fell against the yen for a second straight day and was last trading at 83.33 yen, down 0.4 percent, but has gained 1.5 percent so far this month

Trading Setups / Chart in Focus:

Silver and Gold

Silver has been on an accelerating up move over the last month that was kicked off by a weekly pin bar setup seen in the second chart below. Traders who are aware of the power of price action trading on higher time frames could have made some serious money on this weekly pin bar.

The daily chart provided a decent pin bar entry recently with an inside bar forming the day after, the $31.25 should now be viewed as potential support. Note silver has broken out to fresh multi-year highs. We did discuss both of these setups in the member’s section weeks ago.

Gold has performed quite well recently as well. The minor fakey with pin bar setup discussed in the commentary from February 10th, continues to provide solid profits for price action traders. Note the resistance coming in near $1390.00 an ounce.

For a more in-depth analysis of the major forex currency pairs and price action analysis, please check out my forex trading course.

Other Markets:

On Wall Street today U.S. stocks pushed higher as investors used a brief dip on negative economic news to buy into marketing leading stocks.

Nvidia Corp was up 9.8 percent after posting a bullish revenue forecast on accelerating sales of its processors. The technology sector showed broad strength today with an index of semiconductors’ shares (.SOX) gaining 1.4 percent and up 21.3 percent since early December.

The Dow added 29.97 points, or 0.24 percent, the S&P 500 gained 4.11 points, or 0.31 percent, and the Nasdaq was up 6.02 points, or 0.21 percent.

Upcoming important economic announcements: 2/18/2011

4:30am EST: Britain – Retail Sales m/m
4:30am EST: Canada – Core CPI m/m
8:00am EST: United States – Fed Chairman Bernanke Speaks
8:20am EST: Britain – BOE Gov King Speaks